


How to Raise Your Dragon

by celerydragon



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dragons, Fake/Pretend Relationship, M/M, Trans!Jongin, i guess this counts as that right? right
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-11
Updated: 2017-06-26
Packaged: 2018-11-19 11:35:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 40,896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11312550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/celerydragon/pseuds/celerydragon
Summary: For his entire life, Kyungsoo has practiced and studied to be the best candidate for raising the dragon- the rarest creatures on the planet- and he's not going to let anything ruin it for him.





	1. The Ceremony

**Author's Note:**

> warning: dysphoria

  

The nerves are making Kyungsoo’s hands shake a little bit, but he knows he’ll be ok. He’s memorised everything he needs to know to take on this task and more; and the only thing standing in his way right now is the procession and ceremony itself. Biting his lip to quell the excitement, he pulls down his veil so it’s covering his face. He’s dressed traditionally in a multilayered white, floaty robe, with an emerald green sash tied around his waist, an ornate bow at his back. It’s heavy and hot, but beautiful, and Kyungsoo loves that he has been given the chance to wear it, even just for one day.  

The procession consists of nine people- in pairs, four leading and four taking up the rear with the protector, Kyungsoo, in the centre- just as it’s always done. It’s an ancient tradition, and Kyungsoo is ecstatic to be the person the responsibility is entrusted to. Out of the several hundred other candidates vying for the position, Kyungsoo was chosen for both his remarkable test results and his outstanding passion.

In just a few minutes, they will start to walk slowly to the age-old rhythm of the drums and pipes, towards the altar, which is situated at the far end of the cathedral atop a raised platform. He’s practiced walking to the beat in his bedroom alone for weeks now, and he thinks he’s perfected the art.

The music starts and his heart swells. His body naturally falls into the correct pattern, and even though no one can see him behind the veil, he keeps his eyes facing forwards, not daring to look at the congregation as that would be improper. But even so, from the corner of his eye, Kyungsoo is astounded at just how many people have gathered here today to see this, many of them whispering and staring at him. Children stand on their parent’s laps to get a better look at what’s going on. He remembers doing the same when he was young. Dragon Bonding Ceremony are highly anticipated, and more of a spectacle than a royal wedding. Kyungsoo is extremely privileged to be the one to look after the hatchling.

He can see the egg from here, just about. Not in detail, unfortunately, but he knows it will be a pearlescent, shining shade of green, matching his sash, and it will rest delicately on a pure white cushion. He’s read a great number of descriptions of it, and spent an embarrassing number of hours imagining what the young dragon will look like when it breaks its shell. Dark green like its mother, living in the far southern jungles, or a paler shade, like it’s father who lives further north? Spiky, or sleek? Will it have a mane like its father? Or maybe curled horns like its mother?

He will just have to wait and see.

Reaching the steps- there’s sixteen of them, and he counts them all out as he ascends- Kyungsoo takes a moment to admire the stained glass window set into the stone wall, and how the sunlight makes the bright red of the huge dragon’s scales seem to blaze with life. It depicts the very first time a dragon egg was given to a human, and reaches over twenty feet in height. It’s a masterpiece, and Kyungsoo marvels at it every time he comes in here, though he’s never felt quite as connected to the small human in the bottom corner until today.

The music dips into a diminuendo, and a soft hush falls across the audience when they reach the top, pairs splitting off to each side and leaving the young man alone in front of the egg. Kyungsoo sighs happily, veiled face smiling. It’s just as lovely as the other sorcerers described it to be, glossy and seeming to almost glow from within. The dragon he will look after is inside there, waiting to hatch.

The head Sorcerer steps forward, and, with a rich, low voice, recites,

“In order to celebrate the promise we, as humans, made to the oldest of the heavenly reptiles, we are gathered here to witness the bond between human and dragon. So as to stop the great earthen beasts from dying out, and becoming lost to history, we promised to raise a new hatchling with love and devotion each seven years.” Kyungsoo knows all the words to this, and he mimes soundlessly, “for six centuries, we have continued to uphold this tradition!” He raises both his arms, his purple sleeves flying out to add dramatic effect.

“This day, Do Kyungsoo is the one to fulfill our promise!” Kyungsoo barely holds back the squeak of excitement as the whole cathedral shakes with thunderous applause.

“When Do Kyungsoo lays his hand on the shell, the magic shall seal their bond.” The head sorcerer intones, calling for silence with a simple gesture. A shiver runs down Kyungsoo’s spine as the tension builds. Everyone in the hall is waiting for him to finish the spell, to lay his hand on the egg and allow the bond to form. Kyungsoo takes a deep breath and counts down from ten.

His hand hovers just over the surface, and it’s so quiet he could hear a pin drop.

As he makes the final decision to lower his hand and seal the deal, several things happen at once.

 

First, his hand touches the egg, and the spell begins.

 

The second, is that a dark figure falls out of the air in front of him with a surprised cry, on the opposite side of the altar, arms pinwheeling to stay balanced.

 

The third thing that happens is the stranger’s hand touching the egg, golden fingers splayed out over Kyungsoo’s.

 

No one moves.

 

Kyungsoo gapes, forgetting to even look at the ethereal glow emanating from within the egg. The other person looks shocked, eyes darting around manically as if searching for an escape route. Their hair is short and messy, and their clothes- like nothing he’s ever seen before- are dirty and dishevelled.

It’s only when the glow dims that pandemonium begins.


	2. The New Home

 

Pandemonium. That’s the only word that could possibly describe what’s going on right now, Kyungsoo thinks fearfully. The moment the light inside the egg died, the whispering began, then the shouting, and now people are on their feet yelling at the tops of their voices. Kyungsoo can understand why: some strange, probably foreign, person just materialised out of thin air, and somehow managed to ride the spell. Kyungsoo can feel both spirits- of the dragon and the stranger- hovering just out of reach of his consciousness.

Kyungsoo still hasn’t said a word, stood frozen in place. So is the stranger, though they look like they’d rather be anywhere but here- their face is contorted into a wild expression of fear, eyes bulging from their face. The stranger seems to be afraid of the rousing crowd.

“Silence!” The head sorcerer takes back control of the congregation, raising his arms to the ceiling. The crowd obeys almost instantly, knowing better than to incur his wrath.

“Come with me,” He orders the two in much lower tones, before sweeping off through a side door. Kyungsoo follows swiftly, head down, trying not to let the reality of the situation sink in. He has a feeling he’s in trouble, though none of this is his fault. The other person is the one in the wrong here- ruining his Dragon Bonding Ceremony! How _dare_ they!

Rage bubbles up inside him and he clenches his fists, glad that no one can see it underneath all this floating cloth. They enter a small room which is usually used to prepare things for ceremonies and has all sorts of magical paraphernalia on shelves lining each wall, and also two small velveteen loveseats in the middle. The head magician seats himself on one of them but Kyungsoo is too angry for that now. The moment the stranger is frogmarched into the room, he tears off his veil and throws it to the ground.

“How dare you ruin this for me! I spent _years_ practising for that moment and then you _took it from me!_ ” He screams, “Who even are you? Some kind of anti-dragon terrorist?!” The stranger tries to back away but the two magicians that are holding him don’t let him. They forcefully guide him to sit on the unoccupied settee. Before Kyungsoo can let loose more threats or angry words, the head magician speaks.

“What is your name, young man,” His voice is welcoming and about as unintimidating as Kyungsoo has ever heard him, which is odd in itself as his reputation is to be fearsome. Yet the intruder still doesn’t speak. His hands are clenched in his lap and his lips pressed into a thin line.

“And now you sit there as if we should take pity on you, when it is _your_ fault everything has gone wrong-!”

“Kyungsoo.” He is interrupted as he takes a breath by a curt reminder not to take it too far. The head magician is staring at him sternly. Fuming, Kyungsoo folds his arms and shuts his mouth but continues to glare at the interloper. The head magician nods and turns back to the young man situated on the sofa.

“Do you understand what you have just done?” He asks softly. Kyungsoo wants to shout _of course he knows what he’s done_ but after just being effectively told to shut up, he doesn’t think it would be well received. He makes do with harrumphing. The stranger still doesn’t speak.

“Do you perhaps... not understand what I’m saying?”

The head magician frowns as the room remains in silence, apart from the swish of Kyungsoo’s robes as he paces back and forth. He’s trying to reach out to the dragon’s spirit, but it’s not ready yet. It still needs more time before it hatches, and Kyungsoo understands that, but now he’s more aware of the stranger’s spirit. He resents that he can taste the fear curdling in his mind, and it makes him feel a little guilty for yelling at him. But not guilty enough to apologise or anything.

The head magician rises to his feet, and slowly walks over to where the stranger is sat. The fear morphs into terror as the old man’s hand reaches for the stranger’s head, and he finally speaks- just one word. Kyungsoo doesn’t understand it at all, and that’s when it clicks. This guy really _is_ a foreigner.

“Hold still, this won’t hurt a bit.” The head magician tries to comfort him. He lays his hand on the top of his head, with his thumb on his forehead. There’s a pulse of magic which Kyungsoo can feel, before the stranger’s eyes widen and his mouth falls open in shock. If Kyungsoo weren’t still angry, he would be amused by his reaction.

“There. Now you can understand me.” Head magician goes back to his seat, “What is your name?”

“It's Kim Jongin.” He says. Great. So he can speak the language now. Kyungsoo waits for head magician to explain that he’s going to break the bond and send him home.

“Where are you from? You aren’t from anywhere near here, are you?” He asks instead. Kyungsoo rolls his eyes. Who _cares_ where he’s from? Just cut the tie and kick him out already!

“I’m from Seoul.” He replies shakily.

“Whereabouts is that?” Head magician leans forward, suddenly very interested.

“Uhh.. South Korea?”

“I’ve never heard of it. Is it a province?”

“Uh, no. It’s a country. Near… China?”

“Curious.” Head magician muses. Kyungsoo exhales loudly to make sure everyone knows how exasperated he is by all this. It’s a waste of time trying to get to know this boy, when he’s only going to be kicked out shortly. It just doesn’t make sense.

“Excuse me, but... where am I, exactly?” The stranger, Jongin, asks. His voice trembles slightly.

“You’re in Anha, the capital of Ohkwang,” Head magician explains kindly,

“This has to be a dream.” He mumbles, looking around as if the room might give him some clues as to what’s going on. He pinches his hand and the sharp sting of pain travels across their bond making Kyungsoo wince. Why did he do that?

Pursing his lips in aggravation and rubbing the back of his hand as if Jongin had pinched _him_ , Kyungsoo stares at him, analysing his clothes. They’re a lot more close fitting than what people usually wear here. The trousers he is wearing have silver zips on the thighs, and he’s wearing a thick jacket made of what looks to be leather. His shoes are dirty and falling apart and though his look seems to be messy, he’s pretty sure the shoes really are just broken and not artfully ruined. More than just being scruffy, though, he looks like he’s in need to a good wash too. Kyungsoo hadn’t noticed before, but he has a small bag slung over his shoulder, also grimy and a little ripped. Jongin fidgets uncomfortably under Kyungsoo’s scrutiny, glancing up at him for just a second before losing his nerve.

“It sounds as if you’re from somewhere else entirely, am I right?”

“I-I guess so? What ...happened?”

“You jumped. Or teleported is a more formal way to say it. But I’ve never seen it done from so far before. I think you might have come from another planet, or maybe even a different time in history. It’s hard to tell.”

“I’m not on Earth?” Jongin whispers. There’s a sense of innate loneliness radiating from him now, and Kyungsoo can’t help but pity him a little.

“No. Now you’re on Jiha. I’ll show you some maps soon, and we can figure this out.”

Kyungsoo clears his throat loudly.

“I know what you’re waiting for me to say, Kyungsoo. But I’m afraid it’s not possible. This spell was designed to be unbreakable. I can certainly look into finding a way to break it but I’m sure I won’t be able to find anything.”

“ _What?_ ” Kyungsoo wants to cry. The look he sends Jongin then is so full of venom that he flinches. The protector opens his mouth to protest more fiercely, but head magician beats him to it.

“Furthermore, I believe Jongin is currently lacking a place to stay. So, for the time being, I think it would be best if he stayed with you and the egg. Just for a few days while we work on arranging something better. You two are stuck with each other for now, whether you like it or not.”

“I definitely _do not!_ ” Kyungsoo hisses. Head magician narrows his eyes.

“I want you to at least be civil to him, Kyungsoo. I’m warning you now.” He says sternly, eyes steely. Kyungsoo staring him down with challenge, but he eventually wavers. It would be pointless to go against the wishes of most powerful magician in the world.

“I understand.” He concedes finally. He runs his hand through his hair in frustration, and wonders where he can get changed.

“Before you go to your new home, we need to announce that there have been some changes to the plan. Everyone is still waiting out there, so now is as good a time as any to introduce you to the public. Don’t worry, we’ll be as quick as possible. We will meet again tomorrow.”

“B-but-!”

“Follow me,” he orders, waiting at the door for Jongin to get up, and when he does- hesitantly- he swiftly stalks down the corridor back to the main hall. Even if he weren’t magically bonded to Jongin, he would be able to sense the panic radiating off him in waves. He’s biting his thumbnail and his eyebrows are drawn into the centre.

“Relax. They’ll probably love the novelty of all this.” Kyungsoo tries to encourage, wanting to get this whole ordeal over with. The sooner they can get to the house that has been prepared for him- _them_ , now- the better.

“But I don’t-!”

“You don’t what,” Kyungsoo huffs, exasperated with him already.

“I don’t know what to do.” He confesses. He looks so pitiful. Kyungsoo rolls his eyes, pleading to the heavenly dragon to give him strength.

“Just stand there and wave when head magician introduces you. Tell me you can at least do that?”

“I-I can do that. Yeah.” Jongin nods, clenching his jaw.

“Good, let’s go,” Kyungsoo grabs his veil, debating over whether he should put it back on before going out there. It’s probably a good idea to at least bring it with him, Muttering curses to himself, he walks as briskly as he can back down to the main hall, Jongin following quickly after him, their footsteps echoing against the white walls.

“Kyungsoo?” Jongin asks quietly. Kyungsoo resists the urge to tell him to shut up. Can’t this wait until later? None of this is going to plan at all and it’s driving him crazy.

“Hm?”

“What’s this whole thing with the egg?”

“Are you serious? Of course you are. _Ugh_. Just wait, ok? Someone’ll tell you later. Try not to ruin this, too.”

“Ok,” Jongin replies almost inaudibly.

Kyungsoo sighs as they reach the ancient door. He can hear head magician’s voice from behind the thick wood, but he can’t quite make out everything he’s saying. Something about the  first time in history, and to give love and support.

Growling in frustration, he shakes the veil in his hands, still unsure whether he should put it on or not. The ceremony is over, so there’s not really any point in him wearing it anymore, but it feels wrong to go out there without it somehow. He deliberates until one of the other magicians from the guild gently takes it out of his hands, and bustles them both through the door.

“-Do Kyungsoo, _and_ Kim Jongin!” As soon as Kyungsoo hears his name, he forces all the frustration to the back of his mind and pastes a well-practiced stage smile on his face. Waving at the congregation as he makes his way over to stand by the egg, he notices that they are mostly quiet. It makes him nervous. The whispering isn’t as welcoming or excited as before. Thousands of eyes are on them, and the tension is high.

Jongin is waving too, and, although his expression is a lot more rigid and obviously uncomfortable, Kyungsoo is grateful he’s trying. It’s understandable that he’s like that, since he probably has no idea what’s going on right now.

Kyungsoo goes to stand to the right of the egg, facing the audience, with Jongin on the other side. This in itself breaks tradition, as normally the protector stands in front of it for the final part of the ceremony.

“The three of them have now entered an unbreakable bond, and both boys will work to take care of their charge!”

There’s a smattering of applause, which gradually escalates into cheering. With a sudden burst of inspiration, Kyungsoo takes Jongin’s hand and holds it high between them, clasped above the egg. The crowd goes wild, and Kyungsoo sags a little in relief. He closes his eyes and is glad he was right about the public loving drama.

Head Magician raises his hands for quiet, and Kyungsoo briefly wonders if he ever gets tired of having to do that. Kyungsoo drops Jongin’s hand and subtly wipes his now clammy hand on his robe.

“Now for the final part of the ceremony.” He explains, “Working together, the two of them must carry the egg to their new home.” Kyungsoo’s eye twitches. Together? He hadn’t been looking forward to carrying it by himself, but now he has to work with some other person to make sure he doesn’t drop their precious cargo? _No thank you._

Two more guild magicians bring out a white woven basket, and lay it down in front of them. Kyungsoo spares one look at Jongin and gestures to the egg laying between them. With only a bit of a scuffle, they manage to transfer it, along with its cushion, into the basket. As they place the green, glistening egg inside, Jongin looks up and catches his first glimpse of the huge stained glass above them. Kyungsoo tries to his smirk as Jongin looks at the egg, then back at the window, mouth falling open in awe.

 

Kyungsoo’s arms ache terribly, and as much as he already loves the unhatched reptile, he can’t wait to put it down. He and Jongin walked all the way to their new home, one handle of the basket each. In all honestly, he hadn’t realised it would be this far away, but it’s meant to be a test to prove his dedication after all. He and Jongin have barely exchanged more than three words the entire journey, and only when Kyungsoo offered for them to take a break for a few minutes. Jongin is breathing hard and both of them are sweating- Kyungsoo the most, since he is still wearing his ceremonial robe. All his informal clothes are inside this new home. They’ll probably have to bring new clothes for Jongin too, at some point, but for now he’ll have to borrow some of Kyungsoo’s. He supposes he’ll be able to find _something_ for him.

The door to the house is in sight now, and Kyungsoo just wants to get in, dump the poor egg in its hatchery, and _bathe_. Kyungsoo unlocks the door by waving his hand in front of the clear stone set into the wood. The spell should recognise that it’s him, and let them both inside. He let’s out a sigh of relief when the door swishes open. It’s all very modern, spells infused everywhere that can do anything for him at the flick of his wrist. He’ll need to acclimatise them to react to Jongin’s movements too, he grumbles, dragging the egg and Jongin inside. The foreigner is openly gaping at the interior, as he has been at practically everything they’ve passed. Everything is new and strange to him, and it makes Kyungsoo wonder how different his home world is to here.

WIth one final heave, the egg is safely inside the hatchery where it will stay until the dragon emerges, and Kyungsoo lets himself collapse on the long settee. He can feel himself melting into the soft cushioning and though he knows he should wash, he’s having a hard time finding the motivation right this very second. Maybe he’ll just have a short nap.

“Um,” Jongin interrupts his happiness. He’s standing in the middle of the room, holding his elbow bashfully. His tatty bag is resting against his leg, and he looks so out of place in here among all the fresh greens and whites it almost hurts his eyes.

“What,” he snaps, regretting it as the taller boy flinches. He should stop being so hard on him, really; the boy is more shocked by these turns of events than he is. And he knows he’s hotheaded, or as some call it, passionate.

“I was just wondering if you had any plugs, or anything.”

“Plugs?”

“Y’know, for electricity? I want to charge my phone.” He holds up a rectangular shaped device. Kyungsoo squints at it.

“What’s electrickery?”

“Nevermind.” He sighs, falling back to silence. Kyungsoo watches him for a moment longer, before closing his eyes again. He hears a shuffling that sounds like it’s leaving the room.

“Hey, wait. You need to acclimatise yourself to this place.” Kyungsoo heaves himself up, feeling like an old man, inclines his head. “Through here I think. It shouldn’t take long. You need to make yourself known to the spell as a resident otherwise nothing in here will work for you,” he explains when met with Jongin’s blank look.

“Oh. Thanks, I guess.” He mumbles, trailing after him listlessly.

“Hm. Thank me after you’ve had a bath. I’ll lend you some clothes to change into afterwards. And… I’m sorry for yelling at you earlier.”

“It’s ok. You were stressed, I get that.” Jongin smiles for the first time since appearing, and it’s only a little one, but Kyungsoo likes it all the same. He has a nice mouth. “Afterwards, will you tell me more about...well, everything?”

“Sure,” Kyungsoo agrees easily. “Give me your hand,” Jongin obliges, and Kyungsoo holds his palm over a large crystal set into the wall. This is the heart of the entire home, and the source of power for all the spells within, be it heat, water, or kinetic. Smaller ones dotted around the rest of the building all do various things; one in the bathroom draws water and another in the kitchen ignites a heat for cooking.

It glows softly as Jongin’s hand touches it.

“It’s tingles.” He observes. He’s like a kid, they way he reacts to everything, though he must be around the same age as Kyungsoo. Which is twenty. Well, maybe he is a little younger than him.

“That means it’s worked.” He says, letting go of Jongin’s warm hand. “The bathroom is through here, I think? To get anything to work, you just have to brush your hand over the crystals, ok?” Kyungsoo opens another door and peers inside. It’s smoothly designed, and sticks with the same colour scheme as the rest of the house. Maybe it’s because the dragon is a forest dragon. Kyungsoo wrinkles his nose. He could probably talk to someone about changing it later.

“Ok, I got it. Thank you.”

“The one to turn on the water is inside the tub, and the one for drying is to the side, over here.” Kyungsoo informs him. Jongin bites his lip and stares at him pointedly. Kyungsoo takes a moment but catches on eventually. “You can wash, I’ll. I’ll go now.” He scoots out of the room and heads to the other end of the house.

Whew. He’d been too angry and wound up to notice earlier, but beyond the grime Jongin is very good looking. Thick lips, and dark hair, combined with height and long legs. A winning combination almost anywhere. Shaking his head, he rummages through the closet for clothes he can lend to him. Most of his clothes are fitted to his size, but the styles he wears are loose and airy, so he thinks they might just about fit on Jongin. He picks a dark blue wraparound top, and some pants that flare out slightly at the ankle. They might be a tad short, but on such short notice it’s the best he can do. Kyungsoo purses his lips, and eventually decides _against_ lending him some of his underwear.

Humming softly to himself, he takes a roundabout route back to the bathroom, checking on the egg, before waving the door open and holding out the clothes.

“Here, I forgot to give them to you before-”

“Get out! Get out, get out, _get out!_ ” Jongin screams, covering himself as best he can with the clothes he’s already taken off. Kyungsoo screws his eyes shut tight and lowers the garments to the floor.

“Ok! I’m sorry, I’ll just leave these here for you.” He backs out as quickly as he can and makes a beeline for the couch, throwing himself on it and ruffling his hair. He exhales loudly.

So. Jongin hates being seen in the bathroom. Noted. He supposes just walking in there without even knocking _was_ a little rude of him.

But he couldn’t help noticing that Jongin is awfully thin, and that makes Kyungsoo wonder if he was struggling, back home. Thin and dirty. Kyungsoo doesn’t want to jump to conclusions, but it looks as though he might have been homeless. Maybe that bag he carries is all he owns. Well, whatever. It might be a sensitive topic, so no matter how curious he gets, he won’t bring it up. He doesn’t want to offend him _again._

Sighing, Kyungsoo gets up to explore more of the house. The kitchen is just as spacious as the living area, with only a countertop separating them. A quick look through all the cupboards reveals enough food for the two of them to last for a while without having to go shopping.

He’s already seen the bedroom, but he was in a bit of a hurry, so he goes back for another look. The bed is large and roomy, and there is a selection of small crystals in the wall, presumably for music and lights. He’ll try those out later.

Besides the hatchery, which will later become the nursery until the dragon is too big to use it, there are two more spare rooms which are empty for now. One of them will probably become Jongin's room, later on, he surmises.

Towards the back of the house is what he’s most excited to see: the atrium. A large, glass room which extends far enough that Kyungsoo can’t see the end of it, though that might be due to all the large leafed trees growing inside. It’s beautiful and warm and Kyungsoo can see himself spending a lot of time in here. Especially when the dragon hatches- it’s perfect. He settles himself down on the soft grass and relaxes, finally.

 

“Kyungsoo?” Jongin calls from inside.

“Out here!” He responds, staring up at the cloud filled sky through the ceiling, looking for things that aren’t really there. Jongin arrives a moment later, dressed in Kyungsoo’s clothes. He’s not wearing them quite right, but he doesn’t know how to tell him that, so he stays mum.

“Wow,” Jongin breathes, gaping at the indoor forest. He sinks into a crouch, and covers his mouth. “This is really real, isn’t it? I’m not dreaming?” There are tears in his eyes and Kyungsoo is suddenly the nervous one. He’s never been good at comforting people- he can’t even tell if they’re happy or sad tears. He pats him on the shoulder.

“Y-yes. It’s real.”

Jongin sobs, and soon he’s crying. Kyungsoo flusters. What the hell is he supposed to say?

“Hey, hey, don’t cry.” He tries.

“I’m s-orry, I don’t mean to. I’ll be fine, just. Give me a minute,” he sniffles. Kyungsoo wets his lips and nods.

“Ok. Ok, well, I’m going to go make us some dinner. I’ll let you know when it’s ready, and you can come and get it when you feel like it, Alright?”

“Alright,” Jongin nods, wiping his eyes. Kyungsoo scoots back inside and away from the crying boy, hurrying to make something that might take his mind off, well, everything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the electrickery pun is stolen from catweazel lol


	3. The Truth

 

 It’s warm. Too warm, Kyungsoo thinks; this place should be the perfect temperature. He shifts, trying to get rid of whatever it is that’s making him so warm, he doesn’t remember bringing any extra blankets with him to bed, but the something sharing his bed with him doesn’t budge. He groans. Whatever it is, it’s big and pressing up against his back.

“Mm... what?” He rubs his eyes and looks over his shoulder. “Ack!” The source of the heat screws up his eyes and frowns at being woken up.

“What is it?” Jongin’s voice is croaky from sleeping and Kyungsoo flushes bright red, kicking out with his feet and pushing him out of the bed. “What the- ow!” Jongin cries, tumbling to the floor while Kyungsoo pulls the thin, airy sheets around him. The memories of last night come flooding back- they had argued over who should get the bed and eventually Kyungsoo had called the head magician who had told them to just share the bed, as it was big enough for two. Jongin hadn’t seemed to mind that much, and Kyungsoo didn’t want to reject it and cause a scene to make him seem even more like a temperamental diva than he probably already did.

“What was that for?” Jongin complains, rubbing his hip as he gets up. He stretches and Kyungsoo looks away. The bedclothes he borrowed from him, a comfortable wraparound style, have fallen loose and Kyungsoo caught a glimpse of golden skin before he shut his eyes. Jongin didn’t want to be seen yesterday and probably doesn’t realise that he’s on show.

“I forgot. I’m sorry, I won’t let it happen again.” Kyungsoo replies stiffly. Jongin shrugs shyly, and looks around the room. There’s not much to see, since they only moved in yesterday; all the walls are bare apart from some leafy green accents.

“Do you normally eat when you wake up? I don’t know what’s normal here, but I do know that I’m hungry.” Jongin asks, pulling his borrowed clothes tightly around him. “And can I please borrow some more clothes?”

“Yeah, of course.” Kyungsoo runs his fingers through his hair as he makes his way over to his wardrobe and pulls out some more ill-fitting gowns and hands them to him. “These should be ok. But I think you should be able to get some things fitted for you today anyway, so you might not have to wear these for long.”

“Ah, that’s good.” Jongin smiles warmly at him and Kyungsoo glares back. His hair is messy and it’s oddly charming, just like pretty much everything else about him.

“I’m going to check on the egg.” Kyungsoo grumbles. He then marches out of the room, leaving the foreigner to undress in private. The egg doesn’t really need to be checked on but Kyungsoo goes into the hatchery anyway, just to its smooth surface and wonder again when it will hatch, and what it will look like when it does. This is such an odd situation to be in: a dragon has never had more than one guardian before- at least not that Kyungsoo knows of- but he supposes there’s really no reason not to. It will just take a while to get used to having the other boy around. And… sleeping in his bed. Maybe he should have asked head magician to get them a second bed when they spoke last night, but he had been too flustered to say anything at the time.

Sighing, Kyungsoo rises to his feet and heads to the kitchen. After searching through the refrigerator and cupboards, Kyungsoo concludes that fruit will be good enough for their breakfast. He picks out a small melon and, using the crystal embedded in the wall, splits it into several even pieces. Gem magic is so convenient.  

Jongin arrives a few moments later, looking awake and refreshed. He seats himself gingerly at the table, and Kyungsoo places the bowl of fruit in front of him. He looks at it quizzically for a moment, before picking up a piece with his fingers and taking a hesitant bite. He can feel the surprise and delight transfer across the bond. Jongin hums in appreciation, and Kyungsoo flushes.

“It’s just fruit, I didn’t even do anything to it.” Kyungsoo mumbles. “I need to go get dressed too.” He makes his escape before Jongin can say anything otherwise.

When he comes back, a few minutes later, Jongin is almost done eating.

“What is this, by the way?”

“It’s melon.” Kyungsoo frowns. They don’t have melons where he comes from? What a strange place.

“Ooh. It looks different to the ones I have back home.” Jongin says, “This is almost transparent, the ones I’m used to are pink, and have lots of black seeds in.”

“That sounds gross.” Kyungsoo wrinkles his nose. The only food he can think of that is pink is meat and it’s not eaten very often, due to the shortage of animal farms. It’s expensive.

“It’s really not!” The foreigner insists.”But I digress- I wanted to ask you some questions.”

“You already did.”

“Some more questions then,” Jongin raises one eyebrow playfully. Is he doing that on purpose? Kyungsoo wonders. Whatever, it’s not going to work on him.

“Ask away,” Kyungsoo waves his hand dismissively and starts to eat his own share of melon.

“Ok, first question: what’s with this whole dragon business? It seems like a really huge deal.”

Kyungsoo chokes on his melon. Jongin reaches out as if to help, but Kyungsoo bats his hand away.

“A big deal? It’s the biggest deal- this only happens once every seven years!” He exclaims, after swallowing, “I was lucky enough to be chosen for the honour, but then you showed up and stole the spotlight!”

“Oh.” Jongin looks down. “Well, I didn’t mean to.”

“No, I’m sorry. That made me sound like a terrible person. I don’t mean…. _all_ of it. Alright. Would you like to hear the story of how it all started? Like the stained glass in the hall?” The story he’s memorised down to the last detail; the story he’s regarded as law since the time he could read.

“Sure.” Jongin agrees affably. Kyungsoo clears his throat.

“Well, it starts about six hundred years ago. There was a war between humans and dragons, the firepower razed a lot of places to the ground. But since humans had higher numbers, the dragons were slowly losing the fight. But then a dragon and a human became friends; after finding the dragon wounded on the battlefield but not dead, the human- Haeun, a young soldier- saved her life and nursed her back to health with her crystal. They kept their friendship a secret for a few years, but as the tension gradually mounted and the dragons looked like they were losing, they became increasingly aware that they needed to do something about the war. The dragon’s were down to their last reserves, less than a hundred of them left.”

“What were they fighting over?” Jongin interrupts quietly.

“Territory, resources. The usual things people fight over, I suppose. It was in the middle of another battle that they saw each other, but instead of fighting like their superiors wanted, they met up in the middle and Haeun jumped on the dragon’s back and flew up into the air. No one had ever seen such a thing and both armies stopped what they were doing to watch them. Using the crystal, she amplified her voice and spoke to everyone. She explained that they didn’t need to fight- that humans and dragons were capable of being friends.” He finishes by clasping his hands dramatically. It feels like he’s finally putting all his history lessons to good use.

“And did it work? Just like that?”

“Well, no. They stopped fighting and the war was officially over after that, but there was still animosity between them for several years. But then, when Haeun got a little older, she revealed that the friendship between the two of them had become so strong that they cast a spell that would allow them to stay together for as long as possible. And then, a lot later; almost one hundred years later, they realised that the dragon population was dwindling. Or, it hadn’t changed much in the entire time they had been together; not enough eggs were hatching.”

“Why not?”

“The way dragon’s breed is very different to humans. They have a very long gestation period.  Haeun and Byeongho, the dragon, thought for a long time.”

“And they came up with the bonding thing?”

“Yes. They thought it would both help the population of the dragons increase, or at least remain steady, and improve the rapport of the two colonies.”

“I guess it must have worked then.”

“Well, not really. The dragons are even more rare than they used to be and the only ones we know about are bonded to a human. But it did help to preserve their kind and stop them from going extinct completely.”

“I see.” Jongin purses his lips. “I can’t believe dragons are even real. It’s all so like...pokemon or something.” He grins and shakes his head, clearly thinking of something from a while ago.

“What’s ‘pokemon’?” The guy comes out with the strangest things sometimes. Must be something they only have where he comes from.

“Nevermind.” He laughs. “Another question: any idea when this dragon will hatch?”

“Not sure the specifics, but it should be in the next few weeks or so.”

“Oh, so not ages then.” Jongin sits back in his seat, and looks around the room again. As he picks up their dirty plates, Kyungsoo wonders how different it looks to what he’s used to.

“How did you get picked? I mean...yesterday you kept saying that you were picked to be the protector, so I was just wondering.”

“Hmm.” Kyungsoo uses the crystal to start the water running and begins to wash the bowls, “well, I studied for a long time. I had to know a lot about the history surrounding dragons and of course I read about a hundred books about taking care of dragons. I had to be interviewed by both head magician and one of the older dragons. That part was scary but amazing at the same time.”

“You already met a dragon?” Jongin gasps, “What was that like?”

“Awesome.” Kyungsoo dries his hands and turns around. “Moonbyeol is huge- one of the oldest dragons in the world- she wouldn’t fit in the main hall, she’s that big. She’s pitch black, but her eyes are white and her protector is so old that he can’t stand up anymore, but together they’re still a force to be reckoned with. They both live together at the top of Mount Uju and can fly really high above the clouds. They’re both over a hundred years old.”

“Sounds amazing.” Jongin marvels. He’s cute, in a naive way. Kyungsoo hopes he can’t feel the sentiment across their bond.

“It is. My- our- dragon’s parents are both forest dragons, so when they hatch they will likely be green or camouflaged. That’s why we have the atrium out back there.” He gestures behind him, and Jongin nods slowly, starting to understand.

“So do dragons just never stop growing?”

“Well, not technically, but they slow down. They grow really fast for the first five to ten years of their life, and then gradually get bigger from then onwards. They need to sleep a lot when they get bigger, to save energy, as it’s difficult to find enough food to sustain them.”

“I used to wish I was a dragon, because they don’t exist where I come from.”

“Really? Did they already go extinct? You should have done something to save them.” Kyungsoo scolds, as if it’s Jongin’s fault.

“No, they never existed. There used to be dinosaurs a long, long time ago before humans were alive, but there was a huge disaster and they all died out.”

“That’s a shame.” Kyungsoo wrinkles his nose, “But wait, if there weren’t humans then, how do you know about these dinosaurs?”

“Oh, we have archaeologists.” Kyungsoo wrinkles his nose in confusion, “They are people who dig up bones and things, and study them. And we have history museums where they show off replicas- or sometimes real ones- and other really old things.”

“Museum...  like a library, but instead of books, there’s...bones?” That’s disgusting. Even to use as a tool for learning, it’s incredibly morbid to have real dead bodies on display for anyone to see. Why don’t they just use magic projections to illustrate them instead?

“Among other things and you aren’t allowed to take anything away, but yes. I guess so.” Jongin shrugs as if what he’s saying is completely normal.

“Well, that’s weird. Your world sounds really weird.” He says. He’s pretty sure they’ve established that Jongin is from another world by now, right? Well, whatever, they need to get a start on the things planned for today.

“I need to contact head magician,” Kyungsoo informs him, getting out his personal crystal and marching towards another one in the wall. “I’ll ask him about separate sleeping arrangements and getting some new clothes made for you.”

“Uh. Ok,” Jongin replies, fiddling with the black device he called his ‘phone’ yesterday. Kyungsoo nods once again and taps into the magic of the crystals, linking them up to send out a signal to the magician’s guild.

 

It’s difficult to get used to seeing Jongin in clothes that fit him. He’d said that he been conned into getting colourful things, since usually he would only wear black, or dark colours. But most of the things that he bought today are vividly coloured and patterned. They suit him.

“Why would you only wear black?” Kyungsoo asks a little while later, after they’ve both eaten and are sat comfortably on the sofa. Jongin blanches and Kyungsoo wonders if he’s overstepped his boundaries again. Jongin follows the pattern embroidered onto his gown with his finger.

“The main reason is because it’s harder to tell when it’s dirty.” He mumbles. Kyungsoo so badly wants to ask why this was important for him, but he knows that that really would be stepping over the line. All the same, the question is almost bursting from his lips. Jongin seems to sense this, and he retreats into himself, visibly shrinking.

“I was homeless. It was hard for me to find a place to wash my clothes, more often than not, so I went a while between being clean.” He confesses, not looking up to see Kyungsoo’s reaction. He sounds like he might cry again, and Kyungsoo does _not_ want a repeat of yesterday. “I like it better here than back home.”

“Well. Even though you kind of turned up unannounced; you aren’t going to be turned away, I can promise you that. Our baby needs both of us now.” He pauses. “That came out weirder than I meant it to, please don’t misunderstand.” Kyungsoo is quick to clarify. He didn’t mean to make it sound like they we going to raise a child together- though technically they are going to do exactly that.

“Thank you. That means a lot to me.” Jongin sends him a dewy-eyed smile and Kyungsoo bites on his lip.

“It’s nothing.” He grunts.

“You’re actually surprisingly nice, aren’t you?” Jongin comments, “I thought you were going to be mean, but you aren’t”

“Shut up. You don’t know me!” Kyungsoo flusters. Jongin just laughs and smooths out the lines of his garments.

“So what did you do today?” He changes the subject. Kyungsoo is grateful.

“I helped out with the magicians and tutored some of the younger hopefuls.I’ve been helping out ever since it went public that I was going to be the protector.”

“You can tutor?”

“Yeah, but like, only the _really_ young kids. All I really do is tell the story I told you yesterday, talk about ‘my experiences’ and help the teachers organise activities for the day.”

“You make it sounds like you’re a guest speaker,” Jongin says.

“Well, I’m rarely in the same school twice, so a ‘guest speaker’ as you put it is probably accurate.” Kyungsoo muses, “would you like to watch something on the cryscreen?”

“It would make sense to call it that. And would I like to what?” Jongin squints at Kyungsoo, like he has no idea what he’s talking about. He probably doesn’t. Kyungsoo rolls his eyes.

“The crystal screen. That thing over there.” He points to a very subtle ovular shape inset in the wall. It’s a shade or two lighter than the rest of the wall space, and has a smallish crystal below it; it allows the user to change the line of magic that connects to it, switching the information it receives. This one is removable, unlike the others.

“What, is that like a TV?”

“A what? This allows you to tune in to dramas, dances, news reports and other things that have been recorded with magic.”

“Exactly like a TV then.” Jongin asserts, smirking slightly. Kyungsoo narrows his eyes at him, and gets up to retrieve the crystal. It comes alive in his hands, humming, and the cryscreen glows dimly, working to pick up a transmission. Kyungsoo wonders what Jongin would like to watch- would he be more interested in romantic drama, or an adventure themed spectacle? Would he like a dance performance, or singing? Or would he like to learn more about the world he’s in now, and watch some news reports?

“What sort of thing do you want to watch?”

“Anything but sports,” Jongin says playfully. At least they actually have sports where he’s from, Kyungsoo thinks.

“Fine by me.” Kyungsoo replies, switching to a famous dance performance that he’s seen millions of times. It’s about gods and goddesses coming to an agreement over which human they will choose to represent them. He explains it all when Jongin inevitably asks what’s going on, and points out all the different characters, and explains what some of the movements mean. Jongin seems fascinated, and his interest in the performance makes him remember him why he used to love it so much when he was younger.

“This is so interesting, it kinda reminds me of like...a combination of indian dancing and japanese dancing most of the time, but then suddenly it makes me think of like european stuff, like riverdance. It’s so varied!”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Kyungsoo smiles, “But if you say so, then sure,”

“It’s amazing.” Jongin marvels, looking at Kyungsoo bashfully, as if he thinks Kyungsoo is going to , before flicking his eyes back to the show.

“It is,” he agrees, watching him now, instead of the cryscreen. It’s like he has stars glittering in his eyes, or maybe that’s just the reflection of the screen. Seeming to notice the attention, Jongin glances minutely at him, bites his lip and stiffens up. Kyungsoo, realising his actions, blinks and gets up abruptly. He stalks out claiming that he;s going to go check on the egg- Jongin must realise that it’s just an excuse, but Kyungsoo doesn’t care.

When he reaches the nursery, he crouches by the egg, and spies his vague reflection in the green sheen.

“I can’t believe it.” He moans, “this can’t be happening to me.” Of course the egg doesn’t respond at all, but that doesn’t stop Kyungsoo from unloading all his complaints onto the poor unborn lizard. “I refuse to allow myself to crush on this guy. It’s ridiculous- we have to spend the next century together, with you of course,” Kyungsoo adds, “It would be….it wouldn’t be prudent.”

Kyungsoo had never really had time to develop crushes on anyone before, as most of the people around him were either much older than him, related to him, or gone so fast that he barely had time to get to know them. But Jongin is certain to stay around for a long time, and somehow that makes it ok, in Kyungsoo’s subconscious mind, for him to start noticing him in that way. It needs to stop, before he gets in too deep. Kyungsoo sighs, and picture’s Jongin face in his mind, deep, bottomless eyes, strong eyebrows, button nose.

“Argh!” He cries, slapping his cheeks and shaking his head roughly, dispelling the image. It just wasn’t fair. He had to do his best to keep this a professional relationship.

After sorting his hair so it fell in the right way, not that he cared what Jongin thought of him or anything, he heads back to the living space.

“In case you were wondering, the egg is…. fine…” He trails off when he sees that his companion is crying. “Jongin?” He asks softly, wondering if he should just leave him, or try to comfort him. What could have him so upset? He knows it will take longer than a few days for him to get used to the idea of living here, but surely that’s not something to cry about more than once?

“Kyungsoo- that character, is it a boy or a girl?”

“Uhm-” nervous, Kyungsoo looks to see which character he’s pointing to. “That’s Haeju. She’s a girl. She’s the goddess of love and compassion.”

“But she used to be-?” Jongin is curled up into the corner of the sofa, hugging his knees to his chest.

“She was born in a form that didn’t suit her, so she was transformed.” Kyungsoo explains, confused. Why does this have him in _tears_? He sits next to him, but doesn’t reach out to touch him, unsure if he would want that or not. “What’s wrong? I don’t understand.”

“She’s-” Jongin wipes his eyes, and refuses to meet Kyungsoo’s eyes. He clears his throat. “Back home, people don’t like this. In fact, a lot of people really don’t like this, and are really hateful about it.” He closes his eyes, travelling to another time in his head, “some people even go so far as hurt people like that, just because they aren’t what people want them to be.”

“Jongin...” Kyungsoo frowns. “That’s awful.” Jongin smiles crookedly through his tears.

“I’m like her.” He whispers. _Oh_. Kyungsoo thinks- _that explains why he was so upset at me coming into the bathroom_.

“Did people hurt you?” Kyungsoo asks, shocked. With their minds linked, even if it was a temperamental connection, Kyungsoo has access to his mind, his inner self. Even so, he’d never seen him as anything other than a boy, and it would be strange to imagine him any differently.

“No! Well, not physically. My parents kicked me out of the house when I was fifteen. They couldn’t- they just hated the fact that I wasn’t the girl they had raised.”

Kyungsoo can’t think of anything to say. How could anyone do that? To refuse to help their own child… it’s unthinkable. Especially for something that could be so easily rectified: a trip to the magician for a session in body augmentation, though sometimes expensive, is so simple. Even if they didn’t want to change their body, then it wasn’t exactly difficult to make accommodations for them. Kyungsoo is glad that Jongin came here, now, his home sounds like a strange and dangerous place.

“It’s just nice to know that no one is going to hate me here.” Jongin laughs, though it comes out more like a sob. Heart wrenching, Kyungsoo places a hand on Jongin’s shoulder, wondering if perhaps he should hug him instead. He flip flops for a moment, before settling for just patting him.

“Your parents sound like very cruel people.” Kyungsoo comments sadly.

“Well, I used to think so at the time. Now I think they were just scared.”

“You’re too nice, Jongin. Besides, what did they have to be scared of? You aren’t scary at all.”

“Change. They were scared of change.” Jongin turns distant again, mouth twisting into a frown.

“Well, pretty much everything has changed for you in the last few days. You’ve definitely taken everything way better than your parents.”

“Thanks.” Jongin smirks, “What a great consolation prize.” He wipes his eyes, and sniffles, “I’m sorry for being like this; I swear I don’t normally cry this much.”

“I don’t blame you, to be honest.” Kyungsoo murmurs sagely. They go back to watching the dance performance, the silence broken only by the music and the occasional sniffle. After the performance is over, and Haeju is celebrating with the rest of the deities, it feels awfully quiet. Kyungsoo can hear Jongin’s gentle breathing, and the sounds of their clothes when they move.

“You know.” Kyungsoo begins nervously, unsure, “If you wanted...I could speak to head magician for you.”

“What for?”

“For a body augmentation session. I mean, you don’t have to! Just, if you want to.”

“What does that mean?” Jongin asks, voice tremulous. He looks so full of hope that Kyungsoo stops second guessing himself.

“It means you could have your body changed, with magic.”

“You can really do that?!” He gasps.

“Of course; it’s pretty easy.”

“Back home it’s really hard. It’s expensive, and even if you can afford to pay for it, there’s a lot of barriers.”

“So you want to?”

“Yes.” Jongin sighs. “If it’s not too much trouble.”

“Of course not!” Kyungsoo insists, “Allowances will be made for you, because you’re a protector.”

“Are you sure it’d be ok?”

“Oh, yeah.” Kyungsoo waves his hand flippantly. “It’ll be fine. Oh, by the way, I forgot to mention earlier: we need to attend a meeting tomorrow afternoon.”

“Both of us?” Jongin questions, surprised at being included in anything involving anyone above his level.

“Well, yes. We’re _both_ protectors. The meeting will be about how we should greet the public.”

“We have to ‘greet the public’?” Jongin whines. Kyungsoo struggles not to find him cute.

“Yes. We need to decide on your image- mine is already set in stone, so yours may end up being a contrast to mine. Which is pretty much how it already is, so there’s no need to worry.”

“Ugh. I never wanted to be a celebrity. This is going to be awful.” He collapses sideways childishly. He’s warm.

“Ok. No need to be like that. Time to get off me.” He emphasises his point by prodding his head with one finger, until Jongin gets the idea and rolls off the sofa, laughing. Kyungsoo is glad to see that he’s feeling better now. Smiling suits him, after all. He is going to make a brilliant carer- the thought comes into his head unbidden, and he blushes. It will almost be like they are a bonded couple, taking care of their child together. After spending half his life under the assumption that he would be single forever, the thought feels scandalous.

“What’s for dinner?” Jongin asks, hanging over the back of the sofa playfully, and effectively cutting off his train of thought.

“Worms for you.” Kyungsoo teases. The look of horrified shock on his face is priceless; Kyungsoo has to laugh.

“No~ I don’t want worms. _Please_! Not the worms!” Jongin plays along when he realises he’s being made fun of.

“Too bad.” Kyungsoo says mockingly, heading to the kitchen to search through the cooler.

 


	4. The School Visit

 It’s been perhaps two weeks since they started living with each other. Kyungsoo never got round to asking for a new bed, and Jongin hasn’t said anything, so they still share the same bed, and occasionally wake up snuggled together. It’s a little awkward, but bearable.

“So we really _have_ to do this?” Jongin asks, clinging to Kyungsoo’s side like a koala. Kyungsoo rolls his eyes, not for the first time.

“Yes, of course we do. It’s not hard, don’t worry.” Kyungsoo does his best to reassure him. They’re going to talk to some children in a primary school on the edge of the city; Kyungsoo has done this countless times before,  all he needs to say is his life story. Jongin’s case is different, so he suspects that the children will ask him a lot more questions, since they’ve probably heard all about him already.

The school building is pretty typical: it’s tall and white, like most buildings, and covered in equally tall windows. The garden outside for the children to play in is green and decorated with arching-trees, and it reminds Kyungsoo of his childhood. The school he attended had a garden just like that, though he rarely had time to play in it like the other kids. Even way back then, he had decided that he was going to work as hard as he could to be in the position he’s in today.

“What if they don’t like me?” He asks, as they enter the building. Kyungsoo grits his teeth and sighs. He stops them in the middle of the corridor, and makes Jongin turn to face him, nervousness obvious in the way he stands. Well, he usually looks a little nervous, but especially now.

“They’re just children.” He says, trying to sound firm, “They’ll ask questions about how we came to be here. You could probably tell them pretty much anything about where you come from and they’ll all be so amazed they won’t want you to leave.” _They’ll love you like I do_ , he wants to say, but doesn’t. Jongin still doesn’t look convinced, however.

“You said that being interviewed was going to be easy, too.” Jongin sulks.

“It was easy, you only had to answer maybe three questions? Everyone was really surprised at how insightful and sensitive you were.” Kyungsoo tries to make him feel better, “this time it will be even easier, because this isn’t going to be broadcasted to the entire country.” Just reminding Jongin of this makes him shiver a little. He had been a ball of anxiety throughout the entire recording. Jongin doesn’t reply.

The interior of the school sends Kyungsoo tripping down nostalgia lane, just the same as it does in every school he visits, but Jongin is looking around in surprise. The way he stares and gapes at every little thing makes Kyungsoo smile, the cryscreen in the hallways, the lighting systems, and the huge painted murals on the walls. A giant map spans the ceiling, the country of Ohkwang in the middle, the city of Anha marked in the middle. All of it is new to him, and the sparkling in his eyes warms Kyungsoo’s heart.

The children are waiting for them already, say on small round cushions in the classroom. They have pushed back the tables and chairs, which only reach up to Kyungsoo’s knee, to make space for them to sit. When they open the door, their faces all turn towards them, excitement rippling through them. A lot of them are staring at Jongin, curious. They’ve probably seen him a few times on the cryscreens, and as a new face, he’s more interesting than Kyungsoo, who they have all seen many times before.

Immediately, Kyungsoo puts on his practiced smiley face, waving to all of them. Most of them wave back, shyly. Their teacher, a short woman who looks like she’s been through it all, welcomes them and gestures for the pair of them to sit in the front.

“Hello!” he greets them, using his presentation voice, and settling down with Jongin on the cushions provided for them. Kyungsoo makes sure he’s sat close enough to his bond-partner that their arms are touching, so that Jongin remembers he’s not alone. Judging by the way he subtly leans against him, he’s grateful for the reminder.

The children all chorus ‘hello!’ back to him, as they’ve surely practiced.

“My name is Kyungsoo,” he begins, just to make sure everyone is on the same page, “and _this_ is Jongin. Have you heard about him?”

“Yes!” They chorus obediently. Kyungsoo appraises their faces, their chubby cheeks and sparkling eyes. Even though he has done this so many times before, it always feels different. Children can be so astonishing.

“Well, as I’m sure your teacher has told you, me and Jongin are here to tell you about what we do. Can anyone tell me what that is?”

“Yes!” Many of them raise their hands desperate to be picked to answer. Kyungsoo chooses a child in the middle with gaps in their teeth, who looks honestly like they’re about to wet themselves from excitement.

“You’re _dragon protectors_!” The child says, “but you’re _special_ because there’s two of you, not only one.” They finish, smug.

“That’s right.” Kyungsoo smiles, “I was chosen to be the protecter of the dragon, to take care of it when it hatches. I spent a long time studying, and practicing, and I was eventually chosen for the role.” He explains, just like he normally would, before the bonding ceremony took place and everything changed. Before, all he had to do was tell the children how hard he worked, and maybe the story of how the tradition began.

“But then: surprise! During the bonding ceremony, Jongin appeared out of nowhere, and joined the bond!” The children gasp appropriately, all of them staring at the boy in question, who looks a bit embarrassed to be the centre of attention. He clears his throat when Kyungsoo nudges him, telling him to speak. They had already gone over what he should say, and stressed that he shouldn’t use long words, so Kyungsoo knows he will be fine.

“I came from a place called ‘Earth’,” he starts, looking to Kyungsoo for support. Kyungsoo nods encouragingly. “It’s a very different place to here, and things always surprise me. Where I come from, we don’t have dragons at all.” He says.

“Why not!” Comes an outraged cry. Jongin seems taken aback for a moment, but recovers swiftly.

“No one knows: we have stories about them from long ago, but many believe that they were never, _ever_ real.” Kyungsoo thinks he hears a child at the front whisper ‘that’s so silly’, so he sends him a stern look to make him be quiet.

“But! A long, long time ago, there were huge lizards and bugs that walked and flew and swam, bigger than a house.”

“Bigger than Moonbyul?” A child asks in awe.

“Maybe not quite _that_ big.” Jongin concedes, “I digress- I mean, that’s besides the point. A long time before people were around, a big disaster happened. All of them are gone now.” Their audience doesn’t take this news very well, whispering amongst themselves about how sad that must be. Kyungsoo tries to hide the smile pulling at the corners of his mouth.

“Yes, Jongin’s home is very different to here. Would you like to hear about it?”Kyungsoo asks, knowing that Jongin is in need of prompting, even though he’s doing well so far. And he had been worried that they would hate him. Naturally, the children are enthusiastic about this idea.

“Well, I think the biggest difference, apart from the dragons, is that where I’m from there’s no magic.” He pauses to allow the kids to exclaim in shock before continuing, “instead, we have ‘electricity’, which is a kind of energy that we made ourselves. It’s a bit like magic, I guess, but not the same.” Jongin goes on to explain more about his home, about ‘television’ and ‘phone signals’ and all sorts of bizarre things. They rely on science and logic, rather than nature and truth. Kyungsoo smirks as Jongin continues to talk about everything, realising that he’s rambling, maybe out of nervousness. But no one minds, in fact, everyone is absorbing the information ravenously. Kyungsoo has heard some of this before, but it’s still interesting to hear. Especially his comparisons between the two places: watermelons here apparently look like ‘weird jellyfish’ and the birds here are more like ‘dry manta rays’.

“The world is full of vehicles like cars, and trucks, and bikes, which use petrol to fuel them- petrol is a liquid which is found deep underground, which can be set on fire very easily- and it’s that ability which allows the machines to run. They’re called ‘combustion engines’. They’re very effective, but they don’t smell very nice. It makes everything all smokey, especially when there’s lots of them, like in a big city.” All of the children, each one, is hanging onto Jongin’s every word.

Kyungsoo clears his throat. As much as he would love to hear Jongin talk all day about the home he’s left behind, they unfortunately have a limited time before they have to leave. Jongin catches on, cheeks turning pink as he finishes his sentence quietly.

“Since we’re running out of time, we need to move onto the second part of our visit: question time!” Kyungsoo says. “What do you want to know about us, or the dragon, or anything about us?”

There is a pause while the children think about this, then slowly a few of them raise their hands. Kyungsoo picks a girl wearing a red robe.

“Are you two going to marry?” She asks. Kyungsoo blinks, willing himself to not blush. From the corner of his eye he spies Jongin raise his hand to his mouth, colouring prettily. Marry Jongin? He _had_ made comparisons with marriage, as they are going to be raising a child, although not of their species, together. If only to himself.

“We, um, we don’t have any plans to do so, no. Anyone else?” He lets Jongin choose this time, hoping he might have a better instinct for choosing children who _won’t_ ask them anything embarrassing.

“If you don’t have dragons where you come from, then what do you have?” A little boy with a gap-toothed smile asks. Kyungsoo sighs in relief: a safe question. Jongin hums thoughtfully.

“We do have small lizards, but they aren’t the same as dragons. But I bet you want to know about big animals. There are elephants- an elephant wouldn’t be able to get into this room. And whales, that live in the ocean, which are bigger than a house!” He uses his hands to demonstrate how bit they are when compared to each other. “Elephants have long noses which they use like we use hands, to pick up food and wash themselves. They up water and blow it out to give themselves a shower.” Kyungsoo has a feeling that the mental image of these creatures is utterly different from what it must look like in real life. From the looks of it, none of the kids can understand this strange world either. The only creatures that are bigger horses are dragons. Jongin’s home sounds terrifying. Dealing with these elephants and whales every day? It’s a wonder any of them make it through their day without being crushed.

“What’s your favourite colour?”

“Uhm, it used to be black, but now it’s green.” Jongin says first, memories clouding his eyes. Kyungsoo winces, but is glad that he is beginning to recover from the awful experiences of his past. Changing a favourite colour seems insignificant, but Kyungsoo can tell it means a lot to him. There are tears forming in his eyes, and gloom seeping through their bond. Kyungsoo panics a little. Before his partner can start crying, Kyungsoo butts in, claiming his favourite colour as gold, as a distraction. It takes only a few seconds for Jongin to recover, blinking away the moisture and looking up from his clenched hands to choose the next child.

“Do you have toilets?” A concerned little boy asks, eyebrows furrowed. Jongin chuckles,

“Yes, we do.” He says, “and they’re just as good as the ones here, and we have showers too.”

“That’s good.” The boy says, after a moment’s consideration. Both of them continue to answer questions, some of the startlingly insightful, about the bond and the dragon, and many about Jongin’s home. There isn’t much to say about their bond, as it is the same as it would normally be, just with a third entity. And there isn’t much to say about the dragon, aside from it’s parents, as it hasn’t hatched yet. Jongin tries to keep his answers about his home short, as he’s aware they’re running out of their allotted time quickly. Kyungsoo would ordinarily be annoyed that someone is stealing what he used to think of as his spotlight, but he’s just as interested with his answers as everyone else is.

“If you’re from another world, how did you get here?” One little girl shouts out, without waiting to be asked. The teacher starts to tell her off for being rude, but Jongin signals with a wave that he doesn’t mind. He takes a moment to compose himself, during which time Kyungsoo watches on carefully in case he needs to jump in.

“I don’t know how I got here. My world doesn’t have magic...or if it does, no one knows how to use it, well, actually... it’s complicated to explain. The head magician thinks that somehow I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, or the right place at the right time, when a portal opened up. He says they open often, but usually nothing passes through them, or they close so quickly that it doesn’t affect anything. Does… does that answer your question?” He finishes nervously, The girl purses her lips, deep in thought, and eventually nods.

“I think there’s time for just one more question.” Kyungsoo announces, eager to move on to safer territory. He moves his index finger around in a figure of eight until he settles on one final student.

“Are you going to go back, one day?” Kyungsoo’s head whips to Jongin, who is just as taken aback as he is. It hadn’t occurred to Kyungsoo that he might go back one day and, by the looks of things, Jongin hadn’t thought about it either.

“I-I don’t know.” He stammers, “I don’t think so.” The realisation seems to hits him hard; maybe he had been living under the assumption that he would return home one day, but now he doesn’t know what to feel. Flashes of regret, happiness, shock, and guilt bombard him through their link, before Jongin clamps down on everything. Kyungsoo wants to reassure him, to tell him it’s all ok, that everything’s going to be ok, but he doesn’t know how. Jongin smiles a watery smile at him, so maybe he felt the sentiment the same way Kyungsoo did.

“I don’t think I’ll go back.” He says, then looks away. “Have we run out of time?” He asks, looking around as though the walls will tell him. Kyungsoo checks his crystal, and it confirms that they are out of time: in fact they were out of time a little while ago. Kyungsoo wonders why no one stopped them. Maybe they were too enamoured with these stories from another dimension. Kyungsoo smiles ruefully, before bidding the children goodbye. They all chorus ‘goodbye’ back at them, and motion farewell.

As they leave, Jongin asks, “what were they doing?” He demonstrates the children's’ gestures, putting one finger to his lips and then extending his hand out straight in front of him. Watching Jongin do it makes him smile, even if he doesn’t do it as smoothly as a native Anhan, it gives him a visibly innocent, almost childlike aura. Even more so than usual.

“It means ‘farewell’,” Kyungsoo explains, “it’s a kinda childish thing, but it’s cute.” This time when walking through the hallways of the school, Jongin doesn’t even bat an eyelid at the cryscreens and murals. He walks with buoyancy, everything about him more radiant than before. Kyungsoo knew he could do it, and he _did_.

“Yeah, it is. Back home people to this to say goodbye,” he waggles his hand side to side. Kyungsoo wrinkles his nose.

“How odd.” It looks weirdly violent; how can a motion like that be conceived as a friendly greeting?

“Yeah, its not quite the same, it’s more like an acknowledgement? Because you can use it to say hello too.” Jongin chatters ceaselessly now that he isn’t being weighed down by his responsibilities, reverting back to his usual self as fast as a crystal activating. Kyungsoo nods tersely, but secretly he enjoys listening to him. He might not show it, but he loves hearing Jongin talk about his home, and react to things he wouldn’t bat an eyelash at.

“Oh!”Jongin gasps as they exit the main door. “I meant to ask when we came in: are those trees like that on purpose?” He points to the arching trees.

“What do you mean ‘supposed to’? They’re arching-trees, that’s just how they grow.” Kyungsoo somewhat understands the confusion; these trees are native to Ohkwang, and are not found anywhere else on Jiha.

“So you mean that’s _natural?_ ”

“Yes?” Kyungsoo replies, utterly confused. What would a tree be, other than natural?

“It’s just that, back home, sometimes people bend, shape, and trim them to look different. Topiaries, are bush-like trees that rich people pay their gardener’s to cut into shapes, like animals. And then there’s willows, which normally grow straight up, but they’re flexible. So people plant them specially, and weave them as they grow into small shelters.”

“That’s amazing.” Kyungsoo breathes. “We don’t do that here, except maybe plant them in a certain place. Once a plant is growing, that’s it. I don’t think anyone would think to do _that_. It sounds… bizarre, but amazing.” A house made out of a living tree? Wouldn’t that be incredible. It sounds like something from a child’s tale. A plant that resembles a creature, too, seems unreal.

“It’s no more amazing than cloudfalls.” Jongin says, “I still can’t believe that’s a real thing, a waterfall but with clouds. How does that even work?”

“Slowly. It’s very pretty from a distance, but I hear up close it’s incredibly humid and sticky.”

“I want to go there someday.” Jongin murmurs, staring off into the distance. The sun looks good on him, he thinks. Kyungsoo shakes his head when he catches himself staring, and rushes to answer.

“Maybe one day.” He agrees, unconsciously already planning their future together.

 

 

 

Feeling refreshed, Kyungsoo exits the bathroom with his hair still damp after washing himself. It’s his favourite way to start the day, with a bubble bath. He hums a tune, thinking that maybe he’ll go sit with the egg for a little while: it’s going to hatch any day now, he can feel it. It doesn’t _look_ any different, but he can feel the energy emanating from it, just as excited as Kyungsoo is.

“Kyungsoo?” Jongin’s murmur of his name makes him jump. The taller boy is leaning against the wall. He’s clearly nervous: his arms are folded tightly across his body, and his shoulders hunched in. Kyungsoo snaps out of his daydreaming, immediately worried.

“What’s wrong?” He asks, edging nearer. Is he homesick again?

“I have a question.” he starts, examining the floor and avoiding Kyungsoo’s eyes. “It might be awkward, but I don’t know what else to do.”

“You can ask me anything.” Kyungsoo promises. Jongin nods, like that’s what he wanted to hear, and his lips. There’s another moment where Jongin seems to be building up the nerve to say what’s on his mind, and the tension builds. Kyungsoo becomes more and more worried. Usually Jongin is such a chatterbox, whatever he needs to ask must be really important if he’s acting this way.

“Jongin?” Kyungsoo says, prompting him to speak. Jongin flinches, and turns further away from Kyungsoo. He frowns, wanting to comfort him, but he’s no good at it. He raises his hand, reaching out to him, but just as he’s about to lay his hand on his shoulder, Jongin opens his mouth.

“What do people do here when they’re m-menstruating?” He asks, voice so small that Kyungsoo has to strain to hear him.

“A-are you..?” Kyungsoo doesn’t finish his question; the answer is written all of Jongin’s face, and it’s obvious he’s embarrassed by it, for some reason. Maybe it’s because of how he was treated in his home world? It seems the likeliest option, but Kyungsoo still can’t understand it. It just means that he should ask the head magician about body augmentation as soon as possible.

It’s been awhile since he was taught about this stuff, so he doesn’t remember all the details with perfect clarity, but he can still help.

“I think most people take an elixir which suspends it, but some people use fabric strips to soak up the blood.” he says, trying to sound as clinical as possible, not wanting to make Jongin more uncomfortable than he already is. “You have to consult a doctor to get the elixir, though, because it’s made to match each individual’s needs. But we can go and buy some strips, if you need them. The shops aren’t too far from here after all.”

“I- Yes. Thank you.”

“Alright, we can go after I go check on the egg one last time.” Kyungsoo says, already leaving. It’s a good thing he’s already dressed in suitable outdoor clothes, he thinks, he hadn’t expected to be leaving so soon. It’s the first day they’ve had truly free, with no meetings, or talks to children, or media appearances, since this endeavour began. He peeks around the doorway to find that the egg is fine, just as he expected. If it starts to hatch while they are out, both of them will know anyway, so he’s not worried.

By the door, he puts on his shoes, then waits patiently for Jongin to get ready. He appears with the same strange black bag that he had with him when he fell into this world, but it’s mostly empty now. Almost all of his belongings, not that there are many of them, are spread around their shared room.

”Ready?” Kyungsoo asks, once he’s put his shoes on too. Jongin nods, but like earlier, doesn’t look him in the eye. Kyungsoo sighs. Maybe he can coax him into telling him what else is bothering him on the way there, because it can’t just be the menstruation problem.

 

The shopping centre is comprised of a looping web of old narrow roads filled with oddly modernised shops fronts. Almost every building is white, made of he same stone as the cathedral that the bonding ceremony was held in, but decorated with splendid colours. Flowers and bright flags burst of every shop window, describing the shop’s wares.

It’s busy and crowded here, people everywhere Kyungsoo looks. Luckily, they aren’t wearing anything that stands out, so they blend in for the most part. Even so, Jongin withdraws further into himself, staring only at the ground and not saying anything. It hurts Kyungsoo to see, but there’s nothing he can do except guide him into the right store; a pharmaceutical store that’s touted as specialist for natural body health, as opposed to illness. It’s the one his mother used to go to, at least, so he hopes so.

The shop is small, and almost empty. Some of the tension in Jongin’s shoulders flies away when the door shuts behind them, and he looks around like he’s on a mission. The things on sale are organised on shelves around the edges, and several podiums in the middle, but even so it’s not immediately obvious what they’re looking at. Most of them are small bags of strongly scented herbs and soaps, or ointments to help aid some aspect of the body.

“I’ll just go get the lady to talk to you.” He says, pointing to the woman sat reading something on her screen behind the counter. The small teal circle on her cheek marks her out as a trader, which is one of the few customs of the old times which still prevails, along with Kyungsoo’s own choice of career.

“No, wait!” Jongin grabs Kyungsoo’s sleeve, pulling him back

“Relax,” Kyungsoo says, “she won’t mind at all. I know it’s different where you’re from, but here it’s totally fine.” Jongin bites his lip, but eventually acquiesces. With Kyungsoo leading, and Jongin trailing behind him like a young child dragged to go grocery shopping when they didn’t want to, both of them approach the shopkeeper. She smiles brightly and puts her book down when she sees them.

“Good morning! What can I do for you?” She asks, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear when she realises who they are. Since the bonding ceremony incident was such a big deal, almost everyone knows who they are now, after seeing the recording on the cryscreen. Jongin shuffles from one foot to the other, shy, and waits for Kyungsoo to explain.

“We’re in need of menstrual stuff.” Kyungsoo says, trying to be discrete as he is aware of Jongin’s distress.

“For you, or someone else?” She asks, not skipping a beat, just like he knew she wouldn’t. Kyungsoo nudges Jongin gently, clearing his throat.

“For me.” He mumbles.

“Alright! Come with me. Is this your first time buying menstrual products?”

“Uh, it’s my first time here, yeah.” Jongin coughs.

“No problem, I’ll explain everything to you.” She chirps, leading them to one side of the store, before going into sales mode. Kyungsoo steps back to allow Jongin a little more privacy, as he’s sure he wouldn’t want him standing right next to him. Even though can’t put much distance between them in a shop this small, the thought still counts. He hopes.

“Up here we have the regular ones, all reusable of course, and with crystalline absorption technology, and are best for average daytime use. Here we have light, heavy, small, and larger styles.” She points at each shelf as she says this. “All of them have a variety of prints, and are hypoallergenic.”

Kyungsoo picks up some of the small pouches on the podium tables, arranged in small piles with hand written signs next to them. Most of them are bath salts and scented soaps. Jongin lowers his voice so Kyungsoo can only make out an indistinct mumble, but he catches the odd word and guesses he’s asking about how often to wash them, or maybe how.

Attempting to block him a little, Kyungsoo looks closer at the label of the bag he’s holding: apparently this one is good for the skin. He looks through each one, some good for moisturising, others just pleasantly perfumed, until he settles on just a few. When he looks up, Jongin is waiting for him to finish.

“You good?” Kyungsoo asks. Jongin smiles an adorable shy smile and nods. Kyungsoo breathes a sigh of relief, and offers to pay for them all at the same time.

“Do you want to go and find somewhere to eat?” Kyungsoo wonders, thinking that it’s around lunch time now. He’s hungry, even if Jongin isn’t. Jongin nods again, and thanks the shopkeeper once again

As they leave, everything stored safely in Jongin’s tatty old rucksack, Jongin quietly informs him that he chose a set with dragon decorations.

 

 

 

They return home tired, but pleased. As soon as Kyungsoo has taken his shoes off and left Jongin to his own devices, he heads into the sitting room, intending to turn on the cryscreen and watch something for a while. He’s about halfway through some comedy show, when something _changes_.

Suddenly a strange, bubbling feeling comes over him. It’s a new sensation, something he has never felt before, but he knows instinctively what it means. He gasps, racing to the nursery and grinning at what he finds. The moment he enters the room, the feeling intensifies, shivers of elation running through him, coursing between the bond.

“Jongin!” Kyungsoo shouts from the nursery, bouncing up and down, “it’s happening!”

The egg is shaking, rolling minutely from side to side. Smiling uncontrollably, he kneels next to the incubator and watches. Jongin bursts in a moment later, all bright colours and bed hair.

“What? What’s happening?” He asks, breathless. Kyungsoo takes a moment to respond, taking in his bedraggled appearance. Obviously he had gone to take a nap- his hair is messy and his wrap only loosely tied together.

“Is..?” Jongin trails off, eyes growing wide with wonder.

“The baby is starting to hatch.” Kyungsoo says, gesturing to the egg with pride.

Jongin gasps and shuffles closer, kneeling next to the basket, reaching out to touch it’s glossy surface. The bubbling sensation swells when Jongin’s finger makes contact.

It must be excited to meet them, too.

 


	5. The Hatchling

 Kyungsoo slaps his face to keep awake. Jongin is taking a nap next to him, and he can’t go to sleep until the baby dragon is fully hatched and safely out of it’s shell, unless Jongin wakes up to take over his spot watching over the baby. He _could_ wake him up, but he doesn’t mind suffering a little longer. He would have to do this by himself if everything had gone according to plan anyway; Jongin wouldn’t be here.  

But it’s been _hours_. It was exciting at first; both he and Jongin had sat next to the basket and watched with bated breath as the egg wobbled to and fro, but it had soon became clear that it was going to take a _long_ time. After half an hour, the tip of a horn poked through the shell, as it started to break the shell. Faint _crack_ s had filled the silence, as it pushed its horn out, carving out a hole that would be big enough for it to crawl through. It’s still got a long way to go, however, and neither of them are allowed to help it. Interfering with mother nature is not wise.

Occasionally the dragon makes small _peep_ sounds, as if to remind them it’s still there. Kyungsoo makes small noises back, and they have a pseudo conversation like that, tiny squeaks and small words of encouragement.

The sun has set by now, and the room is dimly lit with just one lamp above the egg. It’s reflection is a white circle on the egg’s glossy green surface. If Kyungsoo looks closely, he can see a watery image of himself in there too, his features distorted so his nose looks huge. Jongin is there too, but all he can see is his dark hair.

After a particularly hard push, a little piece of the shell falls away, revealing a tiny, green nose. Kyungsoo smiles, proud of the baby dragon. The hole is only about the size of his thumbnail, which is not very big, but even so, it’s progress.

“Hey there,” Kyungsoo says, leaning in close and resting his cheek on his folded arms. The baby dragon makes a small sound back at him, making him smile. His eyelids droop, but he forces them open, determined to stay awake for their baby. He checks the time on his crystal; not that long until morning. He can hold out until then.

 

A long while later, Kyungsoo is shaken awake by Jongin, who is calling his name frantically.

“Kyungsoo! Kyungsoo, wake up! I think it’s finally coming out!”

Kyungsoo’s head flies up, and he rubs his eyes, blinking hard to wake up faster. He hadn’t meant to fall asleep!

There is an outline of a hole which looks just big enough for the baby dragon to get through, and it moves with the baby’s harsh breathing. It must be exhausted, it’s been working almost solidly for hours now. Kyungsoo lets out an awed breath, quickly getting caught up in the emotions swirling inside him.

“C’mon baby,” he urges, “you got this!” Cheering the young hatchling on feeds the swell of elation filling the room. All three of them are feeling this, Kyungsoo knows, each of them feeding off the excitement of the others. It’s incredible: he never knew it would feel like this. Maybe it’s even more intense because Jongin is here?

“You can do this, I know you can.” Jongin leans in close, eyes shining. Kyungsoo squashes the impulse to grab hold of his hand, knowing that that would certainly heighten the feeling. The dragon _peeps_ again, and suddenly Kyungsoo’s hand is in Jongin’s his fingers squeezing tightly. Kyungsoo laughs in dizzy disbelief, and squeezes back. In just a few minutes, they will see their baby for the first time!

A large piece of shell falls away, revealing the baby’s tiny forelegs, six tiny claws on each foot. Both Kyungsoo and Jongin are thrumming with excitement as it makes little sounds at them, it’s chest rising and falling rapidly.

It’s eyes are bright and intelligent, and a striking shade of emerald green that reminds Kyungsoo of sunlight filtering through leaves. Like its father, it has a dark green, wet, scraggly mane around its neck, which conceals two more tiny curled horns just behind it’s tiny ears. It’s so _small_. Kyungsoo is already in love.

“He’s beautiful.” Jongin breathes, reaching out as if to touch but then pulling his hand away. Kyungsoo looks closer through their link and is impressed to find that the baby is, indeed, a boy. How had he not noticed that? Jongin is surprisingly intuitive when it comes to the bond they share.

“He is.” Kyungsoo agrees. The baby scratches at the edge of the remaining shell, seemingly frustrated. Kyungsoo wonders if they’re past the point where it’s ok to help him out of there, or if they need to keep waiting a bit longer. Jongin doesn’t wait while Kyungsoo is dithering, holding his fingers just by the baby dragon’s foreleg. The tiny creature reaches out and rests his foot on Jongin’s finger tip, claws closing gently around him. Jongin gasps.

“Hello.” Jongin whispers. The baby dragon chirps back at him. They stay like that, just resting for a little while, before he baby gathers enough energy to push himself out. It struggles at first, writhing against it’s natural restraints, until another bit of shell chips off, giving him enough room to wriggle all the way out. He flops onto the cushion, marring the whiteness of it with a little blood. It doesn’t matter: this is what it was made for.

It’s like a thousand fireworks are exploding inside him, the pride he feels at the baby’s hatching is unimaginable. He wants to shout, and sing, and dance, but it’s the early hours of the morning and he doesn’t want to disturb the peace. Instead, he smiles so wide his cheeks hurt, sharing the same exultant joy as Jongin. Kyungsoo goes to pick the baby up, and realises he’s still holding Jongin’s hand. Flustered, he snatches his hand away, stuttering about needing to clean the infant up.

“C-could you go and get some towels?” He says, carefully sliding his hands underneath the hatchling’s body. He’s limp, and doesn’t struggle in the least when Kyungsoo’s holds him, and Kyungsoo doesn’t mind that his clothes are now covered in slime. He runs his fingers gently through it’s damp fur. A thin line of it travels down his spine, ending about midway down his back, between his wings, which are a lighter shade of green than the rest of him. They’re jagged along the edges, to look like leaves. He looks a lot like his mother in that regard. His tail ends in a fan, also a lighter green, and resembling tropical leaves. He’s going to be invisible in the atrium, Kyungsoo thinks with a measure of resignation: hide and seek will be a common pastime, he predicts.

The baby wriggles in his arms, and a moment later Jongin appears bearing towels.

“Here,” Jongin says, holding them out for Jongin, but the hatchling has other ideas. He springs to life, scrambling up Kyungsoo’s sleeve and jumping for Jongin. Kyungsoo watches in horror as he slams into Jongin’s chest, clinging onto his clothes so he doesn’t fall. He nips lightly at Jongin’s chin while Jongin stands there, frozen like an idiot under the display of affection.

“Well dry him off, then.” Kyungsoo snaps. He’s trying to be mature about it, but the way the baby immediately jumped ship, well...it stings. Kyungsoo gestures only slightly rudely for Jongin to get on with it.

“Uh, Ok.” Jongin says dumbly, his brain stuttering to life as his arms move jerkily to rub him dry. He’s not doing a very good job of it, and Kyungsoo’s itching to help him, but he doesn’t want to. He’s being spiteful, he knows that. He takes a deep breath, and tries to push the stupid jealous feelings to the side, placing his hands over Jongin’s and showing him how to do it properly. He rubs their fingertips into the mane, and in little circles all over the rest of baby’s scaly body. Jongin relaxes a little under his direction.

“Haven’t you ever done this before?” Kyungsoo asks quietly.

“No. I’ve never had a pet or anything. And I’m… I was an only child, so I never had to help with little siblings.”

“I see.” Kyungsoo murmurs, already sorry for his stupid outburst. They finish drying the baby in quiet, the only sounds being the hatchling’s little chirrups to fill the silence.

Kyungsoo’s mind becomes foggier as he thinks of all the things he needs to get done today: there was going to be another school visit but he isn’t sure if that will go ahead, now that the dragon has hatched. He needs to inform head magician of this, too, but what he really wants to do is just _sleep_. After all that excitement, he’s utterly drained. Holding the baby dragon with one arm, Jongin rubs his eye with one hand, and yawns. Kyungsoo can feel a yawn coming on too.

“Let’s go to sleep.” He manages to get out through the yawn, “we can worry about all the other stuff tomorrow. Or when we wake up.” He amends.

“Does... he sleep with us?” Jongin asks, cradling the tiny creature to him and swaying gently from side to side. The sight pulls at Kyungsoo’s heartstrings. It’s like Jongin was born for this; born to be a good carer, a good protector.

“If he wants.” Kyungsoo says.

“Do you want that?” Jongin asks, his voice raising a few octaves as he speaks to the baby. It’s cute, and it makes Kyungsoo laugh a little. He scratches the baby on his head, and he closes his eyes under Kyungsoo’s gentle ministrations, and leans up to follow him when he pulls away.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” Kyungsoo smirks, mollified.

 

-

 

Kyungsoo wakes up to the sound of his alarm going off, with a tail lying across his face. He groans, batting it away and whining. How long did he sleep? It can’t have been more than a few hours.

With sand in his eyes, Kyungsoo rolls out of bed, intending to check in with the head magician. He still needs to know that the dragon hatched. Maybe then he can go back to sleep. Vigorously, he ruffles his hair, in the vain hope that it will wake him up a little bit, but it does nothing except make his hair messy.

Though he’s exhausted, the baby is worth it, he tells himself. Bare feet pad across the hard floors, and make him wonder what a ‘carpet’ might feel like between his toes until he reaches the kitchen, where he won’t disturb his sleeping dragon and Jongin. Stifling a yawn, he scrolls through the list projected by his crystal until he finds the head magician, and selects him. The old man picks up quickly.

“Kyungsoo!” He beams, “Good to see you as always. Is everything alright? You look tired.” He sounds concerned, “Do you need to visit a healer?”

“No.” Kyungsoo smiles, pride surging through him. “We had a big night last night. All three of us.” The reaction on the old man’s face is instantaneous: his kind face lighting up like it’s midsummer’s day.

“The egg hatched? That’s fantastic news!” He beams, his face going blurry for a moment as he writes something down and mouths at someone else beside him. “I’ll leave you a few hours to settle in and get some more rest, I’m sure you’re all very tired, and I’ll cancel the things that you had scheduled for today. But, I’ll send someone over this afternoon to talk to you. They’ll have to bring recording equipment, but you already knew that.”

“Yeah.” kyungsoo rubs his eyes again, feeling himself beginning to drift off.

“One question before I let you get back to bed. What does he look like?”

“He looks a lot like his mother.” Kyungsoo grins, thinking back to all the images of the baby’s parents, who he hasn’t actually met yet, “but you can see his father in him too. He has both his horns _and_ her mane.”

“He sounds wonderful.” The head magician sends him a wistful look, “I’d like to meet him soon, but I’ll be busy for a few days.”

“He’ll be around.” Kyungsoo promises, yawning again.

“Of course. I’ll let you get back to sleep now.” He says, waving his hand at Kyungsoo.

“Thanks, sir.” Kyungsoo says, grateful. He didn’t have to cancel their schedules, but he did anyway, out of concern for their wellbeing.

“Sleep well, but make sure you’re both awake before lunchtime, in case the reporter comes early.”

“Yes, sir.” Kyungsoo says, already heading back to the bedroom. He shuts down the line, and falls down onto the bed, curling into Jongin’s side with the baby between them. The last thing he thinks before he drifts off is that the baby dragon looks adorable sleeping with Jongin.

 

-

 

“What do we call him, anyway?” Jongin asks, his mouth full of toasted rogli fruit. Kyungsoo has already explained to him that someone is coming to see them later on, but none of them have been awake for very long. At least they’re all dressed and awake now.

“He’ll tell us his own name when he’s old enough.” Kyungsoo says, “didn’t I already tell you that?”

“Uh, you might have done?” Jongin says, sheepish, “I might have forgotten.” Kyungsoo huffs, feeding the baby dragon little tidbits from his own plate. He should be feeding him proper food, and not cooked stuff, but Kyungsoo thinks that spoiling him a little won’t cause too much harm

“Well, he’ll tell us when he’s ready. We just need to give him a chance to get used to hearing our language spoken out loud.”

“Ok. But what do we call him in the meantime?” Jongin asks, exasperated. Kyungsoo purses his lips. He hadn’t really thought of that. In his head he’s just been calling him ‘the baby’, so he guesses that will have to do for now, unless Jongin has a better idea.

“I don’t know. Whatever you like, unless he seems to not like it. If you call him anything rude, though, I _will_ smack you.” Kyungsoo waves his spoon at him, defending his baby valiantly. Jongin flinches away, arms coming up to protect himself, but he’s laughing all the same.

“Hey, hey!” He squawks, dodging Kyungsoo’s spoon. “Maybe I’ll call him Kitty; he’s kind of like a mix between a cat and a lizard.”

“A what?” Kyungsoo wrinkles his nose. “A ‘cat’?”

“Yeah. Cats are small animals that people back home often have as pets. Maybe I’ll draw a picture of it one day.” He promises, scratching the baby’s head. “Look at this, he acts just like a cat sometimes.”

“Oh.” Kyungsoo marvels once again at how strange Jongin’s world is. People do not make friends with animals here, the only exception being dragons, of course. But that is a special case.

Jongin watches the baby as he nibbles at Kyungsoo’s meal again. “Should he be eating that? Back home, if you feed an animal people food sometimes they get sick.”

“It’s fine.” Kyungsoo waves his concerns away. Jongin shakes his head.

“Alright then. I guess he _does_ need food to grow.” He concedes, remembering that dragons grow very fast, especially at the beginning of their lives. “But he’s going to be the most spoilt heavenly lizard in the world. Yes, I’m talking about _you_.” He makes a silly face when the tiny lizard looks up at him, offended. The baby dragon hisses at him, and swipes playfully at Jongin’s wrist, aiming to get some of his food too. Jongin shakes his hand, and raises his arm out of his reach.

“Uh-uh, this is _my_ food.” He says, taking a huge bite and laughing when the hatchling tries to climb up his sleeve. It looks like it tickles. Kyungsoo sighs, wondering why Jongin is the favourite when he doesn’t even give him the food he wants- surely he would prefer the one who dotes on him more? Kyungsoo is determined to capture the baby’s heart like Jongin already has.

“When is this reporter guy or whatever coming?”Jongin asks through a mouthful of food.

“I already told you; I don’t know. All the head magician said was ‘this afternoon’. They could be here any minute.” Kyungsoo replies, maybe a little more snappishly than necessary judging by the way Jongin recoils sarcastically.

“Alright. I was only asking.” Jongin mumbles, still stopping the dragon from getting to his food.

“I’m sorry,” Kyungsoo sighs, ruffling his hair. “I didn’t mean to be rude. I’m sure they’ll be here any minute now.”

As if it were planned, there is a knock on the door. Jongin grins for a moment at the coincidence, and then he sags, realising what the reporter’s arrival means. Now they will both have to talk at great length and in detail about what happened last night, even though both of them were so tired that it mostly felt like a blur. Jongin makes no sign of moving to answer the door, so Kyungsoo gets up and abandons his food. He holds out his arm for the dragon to come with him, but the baby doesn’t move. He curls up on the tabletop, gnawing at the rogli stone that Kyungsoo had almost picked clean. His teeth are tiny still, and sharp, but Kyungsoo doesn’t think they’re strong enough to break the stone open.

Annoyed at being rejected again, Kyungsoo opens the door, already wearing his public smiley face, and greets the reporter as amicably as he can. She’s a slight woman, wearing smart turquoise green robes, and holding a large circular cryscreen. It looks very expensive, and complicated to use.

“Come in!” Kyungsoo says, holding the door open for her, “Jongin and the baby are still finishing up their food, but we’ll all be through in a minute. If you could just wait on the sofa for us, we’ll be with you shortly.” He says, stalling for time. The woman nods in understanding, and makes herself comfortable, no doubt having done interviews like this many times before. She must be used to his kind of disorganisation, or maybe even used to bratty, annoying celebrities. Kyungsoo desperately hopes this is not what he is coming across as, as he darts back through to the kitchen.

“Jongin, she’s here.” He points to his food, “leave that, we have other priorities right now.”

He reaches out to pick up the baby dragon, but as if he knows what Kyungsoo was planning, he scales Jongin’s sleeve and sits across the back of his neck, his needle-like claws clinging to his muted burgundy wrap. Kyungsoo grits his teeth, wishing he was mature enough to not feel like this is rejection. It makes him question whether he was meant to be a dragon protector after all.

Jongin is watching him carefully, probably able to feel a surge of resentment through their bond. Kyungsoo shakes his head, and ushers Jongin through to where the reporter is waiting, and they all sit down together, the hatchling lying between them. He sneezes, and everyone’s heart melts in that moment.

“He’s very cute.” The reporter comments, her cryscreen on her lap twinkling and sparking as she makes notes. “I didn’t get to mention earlier: my name is Nayeon.”

“Oh, sorry.” Kyungsoo feels bad for not asking when she came in. He was preoccupied with stupid jealousy.

“I won’t take too much of your time.” She promises, pulling out a smaller crystal, clear with a blue hue towards the point, which Kyungsoo recognises as one specially enchanted to capture image, a technique under the umbrella of photomancy.

True to her word, she does her best to keep things brief and concise, asking straightforward questions about how long the hatching took, and about what little of the baby’s personality they know so far. Knowing when he’s being talked about, he nuzzles his rough nose against Jongin’s elbow. Kyungsoo looks away and does his best to seem like he’s unaffected by the dragon’s seemingly preferential treatment.

“How much of a difference do you think there being two of you will make?” She asks at one point, “since, as I’m sure you know, Jongin, usually there is only one dragon protector.” Jongin hums thoughtfully, and looks to Kyungsoo for guidance.

“I don’t know exactly how different it’s going to be. Every relationship with a dragon is going to be different anyway, right? We’ve only had a day to get to know him, but I think our relationship will grow a lot from here on out.”

“Exactly,” Kyungsoo adds, “There’s no way we can _really_ know how things are going to turn out, clairvoyance magic is unreliable for distant futures. All we can really say is that we’re both going to do our best, and take on whatever the future holds as a team.”

“Yeah. The only real difference is there’s more of us. Otherwise it’s the same as normal.” Jongin finishes.

“So there isn’t going to be a favourite parent between you?” She jokes. Both Kyungsoo and Jongin laugh along, but for Kyungsoo it hits close to home. He tries not to make that obvious, though, keeping the smile pasted on his face throughout.

Nayeon records everything carefully, and once the main part of the interview is done she takes photos of them with the hatchling to broadcast on news lines later on tonight. They pose next to each other, the hatchling resting lackadaisically in Jongin’s arms with his leafy tail hanging down past Jongin’s elbow.

Kyungsoo worries that his smile will look more like a grimace, but he tries his best to come of sincere. Because he is, truly, he’s happy to be where he is. And he most certainly doesn’t want to go back to that bratty persona of when Jongin first appeared, when he was a spotlight seeking drama queen, upset that the baby dragon chose Jongin instead of him.

“That’s wonderful, you all look fantastic!” Nayeon compliments them, after taking a nice selection of images. Jongin elbows him to get his attention, and hands over the baby dragon, who goes complacently into Kyungsoo’s arms.

“Let’s take a few with Kyungsoo holding him.” Jongin says, leaning in so close that Kyungsoo catches a waft of the sweet citrine soap that Kyungsoo bought. Is he doing this because he can sense Kyungsoo’s bitter feelings? Suddenly mortified, Kyungsoo clutches at the baby dragon and hopes that the redness blooming on his cheeks isn’t visible in the photos.

His stomach swirls with a mixture of embarrassment and the bursts of affection he had promised to keep under lock and key. He clamps down on it as soon as it arises, and maintains his pose with the baby for the photo. Even so, dumb thoughts fly into his mind unbidden; vain wishes that they could take photos like a couple with a newborn child, maybe with Jongin’s arm around his waist or holding him from behind.

“Good idea,” Nayeon comments, motioning for them to stand closer together. After a moment of hesitation, Jongin slings his arm across Kyungsoo’s shoulders, pulling him into his side. It’s a good idea: making for a better looking picture. But the proximity is making his heart race, and he’s hyperaware of everywhere Jongin is touching him. He doesn’t know _what_ to feel, right now. Should he be glad that Jongin was thinking of him, or embarrassed that his bad feelings were noticed?

“Thank you so much for having me, I know it hasn’t been long, and you’re still adjusting to being around each other. I’ll get out of your hair now, and leave you to it.” She bows her head respectfully, and Jongin returns the sentiment, bowing at the waist.

Leaving Kyungsoo with the dragon nosing at his jaw, Jongin sees the reporter out, bidding her farewell.

Once she’s gone, Jongin returns, leaning in to kiss the baby on the nose. Kyungsoo doesn’t know what to say, now that she’s gone: before he was happy to take charge, because concentrating on that kept his mind off the low burn of jealousy.

“I’m not trying to usurp your position. You know that, right? We’re in this together.” Jongin whispers.

“I know.” Kyungsoo sighs, turning away in guilt. “I know it’s stupid to feel this way. I’ll work on it.” It’s just that in all of his training, throughout all of his youth, he had imagined him and the dragon together through thick and thin. A third person had never been a feature of his fantasies, and he hadn’t expected to feel like this when he hatched.

He likes Jongin, probably too much, but he can’t help feeling jealous when the dragon continues to pick Jongin over him. Maybe he’s just selfish.

“It’s fine.” Jongin reassures him, “it’s the way you feel, and it’s perfectly fine to feel this way. All we can do is work on it, like you said. But I’ll be right here, alright?” Jongin sways to the side, trying to see his face. “Let me know when you’re having problems, you help _me_ , I’ll help _you_. We’re a _team_ now.” He says, repeating Kyungsoo’s words from earlier. This close, Kyungsoo notices that Jongin has warm brown eyes, captivating in their depth. He gulps, heart clenching.

Kyungsoo can’t believe how selfless this boy is. After being flung into a world he doesn’t understand, into a bond he wasn’t prepared for, he’s still so understanding and kind and patient. He smiles.

“Yeah. A team.”


	6. The Festival

 “Can you see him anywhere?” Kyungsoo calls out to Jongin, who’s searching for their baby on the other side of the atrium. He makes a big show of looking up and down, left and right, looking for the tiny dragon hidden somewhere among the leaves.

“Nope. I can’t see him.” Jongin calls back. Kyungsoo bites his lip to stop himself from smiling. He can feel a gentle radiation of amusement through their bond, and is glad to know that their baby is having fun playing hide and seek with them.

“Oh dear, however will we find him?” Kyungsoo cries out, melodramatically. He pushes aside a low hanging branch and reveals Jongin, who is staring up towards the ceiling. Kyungsoo follows his eyeline, and grins, spotting the dangling tail of the two week-old hatchling.

He’s grown a lot since he came into the world, and is already almost too big for them to carry comfortably. _But that’s ok_ , Kyungsoo thinks, as he jumps lightly from tree to tree with ease, traversing the forest-like atrium with surprising agility. He doesn’t need to be carried anymore, which is sad, but Kyungsoo couldn’t be prouder of how he’s growing up.

His horns have become more defined, curling outwards a little more than before, and his mane has grown longer. It looks a little shaggy now, and Kyungsoo itches to trim it, but it’s there for camouflage.

Jongin leans in close to him, whispering in his ear.

“How long do you think it will take till he notices?” Kyungsoo shivers minutely at the closeness, and does his best to stop this feeling from leaking through to Jongin.

“Not long now.” He predicts, pushing down the giggle that threatens to erupt from inside him. Playing with their baby is so much fun, and Kyungsoo is incredibly grateful to whatever deity decided that Jongin should join them in this bond. He wonders how he could ever have wanted him to leave.

There’s a quiet sound, almost like a purr, from above. Suddenly the baby is moving again, darting into the foliage so they can’t see him.

“I blame you. If you had stayed quiet, he wouldn’t have noticed.” Kyungsoo says, poking Jongin in the side.

“Ow!” Jongin complains, retaliating with a pinch to Kyungsoo’s arm. Kyungsoo raises an eyebrow at him, and Jongin looks away, conceding defeat with a pout. “I suppose I could have gone about that better.”

“Exactly. C’mon, we gotta find him again.” Kyungsoo laughs, dancing away to continue looking around. He pushes through some broad leafed branches, and ducks around the tree trunks, keeping his eyes wide open in case he spies something.

A sudden weight on his shoulder startles him, and he cries out in shock, wheeling around to see the baby. Bubbles of laughter touch his mind, and he gasps: he’d done that deliberately to scare him.

“You little rascal!” He scolds, reaching up to carry him. The baby dragon lets him manhandle him until Kyungsoo is cradling him in his arms. “I think that’s the end of hide and seek for today.” Kyungsoo mumbles, heading back to the main part of the house. He runs his hands through the hatchling’s messy mane, wondering when he will share his true name with them.

“Kyungsoo!” Jongin suddenly bursts out in front of him, making the baby look up in concern. He seems to be in a bit of a panic. “Is everything ok?”

“Yes?” Kyungsoo asks, a little confused. “Why?” Jongin relaxes a little, and scratches the back of his head, embarrassment filtering through.

“I felt something through our bond, and I thought something had happened to you. You’re usually so, I don’t know...quiet? You’re good at hiding your feelings, so I was worried. It seems silly now.”

“I’m fine.” Kyungsoo pacifies him, smiling. He’s touched that Jongin was so frazzled at the prospect of him being hurt. “Thanks for worrying about me, though.” Jongin clears his throat.

“Of course. No problem. Uh, I’m starting to get hungry, shall we go and get some food?”

“Yeah.” Kyungsoo agrees, leading the way into the kitchen. “What do you want?” He asks, setting the baby down on the counter and peering into the cooler. The dragon makes a tiny noise at being left alone, and skitters across the counter to get some attention from Jongin, who absently the mane on it’s head.

“I don’t mind, really. Anything you make is good.” Jongin says it flippantly, probably just glad he doesn’t have to do anything, but it makes Kyungsoo’s heart flutter anyway. He smiles into his sleeve, and endeavours to make something that really is good, not just ‘edible’, since Jongin was used to eating whatever he could get his hands on before. Maybe he’ll bake something; they have enough vegetables for it.

As he starts preparing some root vegetable for roasting, he watches Jongin play with their baby. Jongin likes to , and is almost mean in the way he messes with him, whereas Kyungsoo likes to cuddle with him tell him that he’s precious. Jongin taps on the baby’s wing and giggles as he swivels around, nipping playfully at his hand.

Kyungsoo shakes his head at their antics. He’s mostly gotten over the jealousy issue that had occurred when the baby had first hatched, although he still feels the sting of it occasionally, when the baby picks Jongin over him. But one afternoon, he and Jongin had asked him to pick who was his favourite, and h e had turned around and refused to even look at them until they both stopped.

A little while later, when the food is in the oven, Kyungsoo settles next to Jongin on the sofa, watching the news program that’s being broadcast right now. It’s the cultural news, and at the moment they’re showing a segment about the upcoming festival, and going into detail about the shows that will be there.

“Do you want to go see this?” Kyungsoo asks, the idea hitting him suddenly. Neither of them have had the chance to enjoy anything outside of their house yet, and Kyungsoo is struck with the urge to show Jongin the best parts of his world.

“What is it?”

“Union day. It’s the annual celebration of the first union. From the story? You were told about this, you can’t have forgotten already! We have to go to the remembrance service as well.” Jongin had been practicing the songs and everything.

“Oh!” Jongin nods eagerly, recalling the tale of the dragon bond from long ago, “Yes, that would be awesome.”

“I’m sure we’ll be able to go before the service starts. We’d just have to be careful not to get mobbed by the people,” Kyungsoo laughs. “It should be fun. I’ll take you around to try all the food and stuff.” Kyungsoo tries not to make it sound like a date, but fails. Jongin doesn’t seem to mind at all, though, which appeases his heart.

“Yeah.” Jongin agrees, stroking the baby’s wing gently as he snoozes on his lap.

 

Kyungsoo opens the large door to the magicians’ guild, nodding politely at the woman at the front desk, who smiles at him and gestures for him to go straight through. Today, Kyungsoo is on a mission: he’s going to talk to the head magician about body augmentation for Jongin.

As he scales the stairs, excitement bubbles up inside of him: just imagining how happy Jongin is going to be when he finds out about it is making him happy. Passing by crystal photos of former head magicians, Kyungsoo walks down the corridor until he reaches the large door which leads to the head office. He knocks on the gilded doors, and waits patiently until he’s allowed to enter.

“Ah, Kyungsoo! It’s a pleasure to see you again. I’m sorry I haven’t had a chance to come and visit.” He says, looking up from his stacks of paper. Kyungsoo has never been in here before without having an appointment, and is taken aback at just how much paperwork he has.

“It’s ok, there will be time.” Kyungsoo smiles pleasantly. The head magician nods, adjusting his glasses to see him better. Kyungsoo remembers back to when he didn’t need glasses, when he was first initiated into his role as guardian. So much time has passed since then.

“I hate to cut our time short, but is there something you wanted to talk with me about?” He asks, apologetic. Kyungsoo nods in understanding: he’s a busy man and he doesn’t want to distract him from his important work. He used to see him regularly, but since the bonding ceremony, and all the business that came afterwards, he hasn’t been able to come and visit him for any reason.

“Well, there is something I want to ask you.”

“Yes?” The head magician tilts his head, interested now. Kyungsoo clutches at his loose wrap and hopes this goes well. He had told Jongin not to worry, but getting this would be more difficult than he had let on.

“Well, the thing is. I was wondering if you would, perhaps, be able to arrange a session of body augmentation for Jongin..?” He trails off, not making eye contact.

“Hmm.” The head magician clasps his hands in front of him. “I will not outrightly say no, however: Lately the magician’s guild has become very busy- since the festival is so iminent. I will try to arrange an appointment for him as soon as I can, but please don’t expect it to happen until after the festival. Also, these things usually take more than one appointment: you should stop by the department on your way back and ask for a booklet for him to read.”

“Of course. Thank you for agreeing.”

“I can hardly let a dragon guardian live on in discomfort, Kyungsoo. What kind of head magician would that make me?” He smiles benevolently.

“Thank you.” Kyungsoo bows his head.

“It’s no problem, Kyungsoo. Thank you for making me aware of the issue.” He clears his throat. “I’ll make some time to come and visit soon, and I’ll bring some maps and books for Jongin as well.”

“Oh, I bought a map already, we’ve put it up on the wall in our bedroom.” Kyungsoo blushes at his casual use of ‘our’, and the head magician purses his lips in consideration. “But I’m sure he would appreciate some books, as long as they aren’t too dense.”

“I’ll bear that in mind when choosing.” He laughs, “Oh! One last thing before you go, Kyungsoo: please make sure Jongin is feeling ok with everything. It’s quite common for pre-augmentation people to be feeling insecure, and anxious. Take care of him.”

“I understand.” Kyungsoo nods, standing up and bowing again. “I’ll see you this evening, at the choir service.” He says softly.

“I hope to as well. Enjoy the festival tonight; I heard that you wanted to take Jongin and the hatchling out to see it.”

“Yes, we were planning to go and see the festival before this evening.” Kyungsoo confirms. The head magician nods.

“Please, be careful.”

“We will be.” Kyungsoo promises, before taking his leave, remembering to pick up some information leaflets on the way home.

  
 

“So my first session won’t actually change anything?” Jongin clarifies, flicking through the leaflet Kyungsoo had picked up for what must be the fourth time. As soon as Kyungsoo had arrived home with them, Jongin had eagerly taken them from him, then retreated to their room to read them through without the baby disturbing him. Kyungsoo had knocked on the door a little while ago, reminding him that they had planned to go to the union day festival.

“They just want to formulate an ‘elixyr’, whatever that means.” He looks up at Kyungsoo, hoping for an explanation.

“It’s a drink that helps your body, I don’t know how to explain.” Kyungsoo says, thinking hard. “It has different things in that fix problems, or, I don’t know- replace things your body is missing?”

“Medicine?” Jongin suggests, flapping the leaflet so that it makes a wobbly noise.

“Maybe?” Kyungsoo shrugs. He has no idea what medicine is, but maybe it’s the same kind of thing. Jongin had said previously that since people where he live don’t have magic to fall back on, they created some clever and ingenious things out of whatever they had available to them. The way Kyungsoo saw it, they didn’t have dragons, so what was the point?

“That sounds pretty easy, then. I’ll just have to talk to them, and take this medicine for a while.” Jongin’s knee is jiggling as well, and Kyungsoo can’t tell if it’s from nerves or excitement.

“Yeah, shouldn’t be too difficult.” Kyungsoo reassures him, wanting to pat his shoulder or something, but eventually deciding against it. “Are you ready to head out?” He asks, looking Jongin up and down. Neither of them had dressed up that much, since they didn’t want to stand out and be noticed, but Kyungsoo had made sure Jongin wore his thicker clothes since they would be walking around outside most of the time. He looks cute with the hat on his head, his fringe peeking out of the front, and Kyungsoo has one to match, although it’s not the same colour. He likes that they have something the same.

“Yep. I’m ready when you are.” Jongin says, putting down the leaflet and standing to his full height. He grins down at Kyungsoo, “Where’s the baby?”

“In the atrium, I’ll go get him now.” Kyungsoo says, “I was just waiting for you to be ready.” Kyungsoo skids across the smooth floor towards the atrium, sliding the door open and calling for the hatchling.

“C’mon! We’re going now!” He shouts. He only has to wait a few seconds before he can hear rustling from the top of the trees, and then the dragon bursts from the leaves. “There you are!” He smiles, holding out his arm so the baby can glide over to him, scrambling up to sit on his shoulder. Together, with the baby nuzzling gently against Kyungsoo’s cheek, all three of them step outside into the cool air.

The way to the town centre is not a long distance, and the crowd grows the closer they get to the market place. Although this day is supposed to be a celebration of the first union between dragon and human, after all these years it’s just become an excuse for people to sell their wares out in the street. The songs are still a tradition that remains, however, and is something that Kyungsoo looks forward to every year. Through the streets comes a procession of singers and dancers, and a giant dragon float, made by the young people of the city out of brightly coloured fabric scraps, and animated with magic.

Until the year before last, when he was officially chosen, he and all the other hopefuls would attend a remembrance service in the cathedral in the late evening, staring up at the huge stained glass window as they sing. The event is broadcast every year without fail, to all the homes across the nation. It’s one of his favourite times of the year.

 

This year, he’ll have a hatchling, and Jongin, by his side.

 

The centre of the city is a commotion, with huge dragon emblems hanging from each building, illuminated by crystal-lit lamps in the early evening light, and people at every turn. Kyungsoo can already smell the fruity wine aroma, from the stalls that sell it, and can’t wait to buy some so Jongin can try it. Do they have wine, where he comes from?

Jongin holds onto the fabric of Kyungsoo’s sleeve so he doesn’t get separated from him, and the baby clings to his back, underneath a fold of his clothes. It’s surprising that they haven’t been noticed yet, but Kyungsoo wants to make the most of it while they still can. Surely it won’t be long before someone spots the baby on his back, and asks to meet him.

“Kyungsoo, look!” Jongin tugs his sleeve, dragging him over to look at some small sculptures that he would have originally overlooked, on his own. They are all little dragons, in various poses, made of a type of redwood that has to have been imported from overseas. They’re a little tacky, in Kyungsoo’s opinion, but Jongin seems so enamoured by them…

“Do you want to buy one?” He whispers, trying not to let the seller hear him. Jongin nods, lips caught between his teeth bashfully. Kyungsoo gulps.

“It would be a good memorial- our first union day with the baby!” Jongin grins.

“You think so?” Kyungsoo asks, trying to resist wrinkling his nose as he surveys the wares. It won’t match with their home decor so far at all. They aren’t too expensive, though, so he eventually caves in. “Which one do you want?” He sighs, but a small smile sneaks onto his face when Jongin lights up, pointing immediately to a smaller one near the front.

“I think this one looks most like our baby.” He says, having to lean closer to Kyungsoo to be heard over the crowd around them. It’s true, kyungsoo thinks regretfully; it has a mane like their hatchling, and horns that are pretty similar. It’s wings are a little off, but it was probably carved before he was born. The seller, with the teal circle on his cheek, watches them expectantly, his gloved hands rubbing together. Kyungsoo isn’t sure if he’s recognised them yet- they are wrapped up pretty well, with only their eye visible.

“We’d like that one, please.” Kyungsoo says, reluctantly pulling out his coin-purse to pay for it. He holds out the right amount of money.

“Ah, that’s one of my early works.” The seller says, picking it up fondly, and stroking over the wings. He wraps it up in some shimmery fabric, and hands her over in exchange for the money. “I hope you give her a good home.”

“We will!” Jongin promises, taking it from him reverently. “Thank you very much!” He holds it close to him, and bows. Kyungsoo hopes he knows that he’s going to have to carry it, as neither of them had the foresight to bring a bag with them.

Just as they turn to leave, the baby clambers up over Kyungsoo’s shoulder to peek at what’s going on, his tiny face appearing in the gloom. The carver’s mouth falls open in shock, his eyes flicking between the dragon and the two boys as he puts the pieces together.

“Thank you!” Kyungsoo says, grabbing Jongin and leading him away before the carver can make a fuss. To the dragon, his hisses: “You should be staying put!” The hatchling purrs quietly, retreating back under his clothes.

“Hey, don’t be mean to our baby.” Jongin nudges his shoulder, still clinging onto his sleeve. “He’s curious, like me, you  can’t blame him for wanting to have a look.”

“I don’t, I just didn’t want everyone to see him and come running.” Kyungsoo frowns, a little hurt at Jongin’s scolding tone. “If you don’t mind being swarmed by people, then _you_ can hold him.”

“Alright.” Jongin says, pausing for a moment, and causing a blockage, “give him to me then.”

“Not here.” Kyungsoo says, not wanting to hold people up, or give them an opportunity to stare. “Let’s just get to a quiet corner first.” He doesn’t even want to hand the baby over to him, as he’d been feeling special since he’d picked Kyungsoo as his carrier. But, he remembers the head magician telling him to take care of Jongin, and while this doesn’t exactly count, he wants to make Jongin happy in any way he can

Kyungsoo finds them a gap between two stalls, and pushes Jongin into it.

“Here we go.” Kyungsoo says, shimmying to let the hatchling on his back know it’s safe. Jongin’s teeth gleam in the lamplight as the baby makes the short leap to his shoulder, coiling around his neck to sit across his shoulders.

“Hey, there.” He laughs, “Now I have two dragons!” The short stab of jealousy fizzles out when Jongin gives the dragon an eskimo kiss, and Kyungsoo tries not to die from the cuteness. Why is he so charming? Everything he does makes Kyungsoo want to hug him, and it’s so frustrating. Hoping that he can’t feel this through the bond, he tries to stamp these feelings down.

He clears his throat, and starts walking. “Shall we get some wine?” He asks, thinking of Jongin’s pleased expression when he tastes the sweet drink. Maybe they could buy some fried rice cakes, with roasted chestnuts inside. Or perhaps Jongin would prefer the kind with berries inside, or caramel. Or maybe Jongin would like some meat- they don’t often have any at home because it’s so expensive, but since it’s a special day today, he can make an allowance.

“Wine? We’re allowed to _drink_?” Jongin squawks, looking at Kyungsoo like he’s grown a third head.

“What do you mean? Of course we’re allowed to drink.” Kyungsoo stares at him, confused. Jongin looks a bit embarrassed, wringing his hands.

“Well, where I’m from you have to be of a certain age to drink alcohol. Because it’s dangerous.”

“Oh.” Kyungsoo frowns, wondering how it could possibly be dangerous to have a drink, alcoholic or otherwise. “How old do you have to be?”

“Nineteen.” Jongin says, the curve of his lips fading. “But I drank before that.”

“Really?” Kyungsoo raises one eyebrow, teasing, “you rulebreaker.”

“Drinking made me feel better about being alone.” Jongin says stoically, turning away and signalling that this conversation is over. A shock of loneliness strikes Kyungsoo through their bond, causing their baby to chirrup sadly. Kyungsoo feels like he’s already failed in his mission to take care of Jongin.

“Oh. D-do you still want to try some wine?” He asks, ready to be turned down. But to his surprise, Jongin nods, with only a small hesitation.

“Yes, I’ll try some. It’s a celebration, after all, right? Is it good?”

“It’s not very strong, so you won’t get drunk, if that’s what you’re worried about. Also It’s sweet, and I know that you like sweet things.” He says, thinking back to the vast amounts of sugared fruit that Jongin can eat at one time. Kyungsoo prefers savoury things, like raw cucumber and salsa, himself.

“C’mon, then.” Jongin says, hurrying Kyungsoo along, and ignoring the stares they both receive from the people around them, “where can we get some?”

“I’m not sure, I guess we just have to keep walking till we find some.” Kyungsoo mumbles, trying to peer over the top of the crowds. He’s just a little too short to be able to see past everyone’s heads, so he’s going to have to rely on Jongin to spot it from afar.

Jongin wanders along, peeking at different stalls like a bee checking flowers, and Kyungsoo ends up carrying the wooden dragon, along with a few other things Jongin cons him into buying. A metal bracelet, with a large green stone inset into it, and a scarf, which Jongin had promptly wrapped around Kyungsoo’s neck for ‘safekeeping’. Kyungsoo’s heart had pounded as Jongin stood so close, circling the woven fabric around him and arranging it till it looked good. It was too warm now, with it on, but he didn’t have the heart to tell him that. Besides, it really was a lovely scarf; some of the threads glistened every time he moves, glimmering gold against the fuchsia shade.

No one stops them, or tries to talk to them, but they can hear people whispering about them, and pointing at them from the corner of his eye. It’s a little weird, but Kyungsoo assumes they must be leaving them alone today because of the festival. Maybe.

Everything stops when the procession passes through, loud music being played from a small moving stage just in front of the dragon. The dragon float is manned by several people this year, controlling its glimmering orange head and wings with crystal magic; it looks so realistic that for a moment even Kyungsoo is almost fooled. Jongin tugs on Kyungsoo’s sleeve, shouting for Kyungsoo to look at it. The hatchling stands on Jongin’s shoulder, his front legs resting on top of Jongin’s head to get a better look.

The dragon float is followed closely by several rows of dancers, all dressed in flowing robes that showcase each and every movement of their bodies, trailing through the air delicately like water. Jongin is entranced.

Kyungsoo has seen this all before, many times, so he finds himself watching Jongin’s face instead, smiling when he does and smiling wider when his mouth falls open in awe. It’s truly magical, in the best sense of the word, how everything that Jongin is feeling right at that moment, Kyungsoo can feel too.

Everything is quiet for a few minutes after the procession has passed, then people gradually start laughing and talking again, and the festivities continue.

“That was amazing.” Jongin says, still standing like a statue at the place where the dragon float last was, “It reminded me of new years day, or something.”

“What’s that like?”

“Well, where I’m from, it’s called _seollal_ , or lunar new year, people go home to visit their families, eat traditional food and that kind of thing. But in China and a couple of other places they have events like this, where they make these huge chinese dragon thingies- I’m not sure what they’re called- and dance through the streets.” He demonstrates just how large these dragons are with his hands, “People go inside them, and make it move with sticks.”

“Oh, that is quite similar. Apart from the sticks thing, that sounds tiring.” Kyungsoo muses, “it sounds like a lot of fun.”

“I’ve never been to one, but I bet it is.” Jongin agrees. “I like eating oranges, and I hear they eat a lot around that time. I think.”

“You think?” Kyungsoo teases.

“I’m not Chinese, ok? I’m Korean. South Korean, specifically.”

“Alright, alright!” Kyungsoo laughs, finding the other boy’s sudden indignance amusing. They keep walking, browsing a few stalls of jewellery, and pointedly not buying anything else, even when Jongin pleads for it. Kyungsoo gives in once or twice, to buy some candied nuts, and a sweet smelling thing to hang on the wall in their room. The hatchling swipes it it playfully as Jongin puts it away, and Kyungsoo can already see the disasters before they happen.

“There it is!” Jongin suddenly exclaims, pointing to somewhere Kyungsoo can’t see.

“The wine stall?” Kyungsoo asks, standing on his toes to get a better look. Jongin nods, pushing his way through the crowd to get to it. They have to go against the flow of people to get to it, dodging and weaving around people.

“This better be worth it.” He grunts, edging past a couple with a child. The baby dragon snorts in the child’s direction, and proudly turns his head when the human child reaches up to touch him.

“It will be.” Kyungsoo promises, using Jongin as a shield, “if we can just get to it.” He laughs, remembering the days when he was younger, and could fit more easily between the gaps to get to where he wanted to go. Of course, he was short, so he had to stand on his tiptoes to be seen by the wine vendor and hand over the money, but they always seemed to find the sight of his large eyes peering over the edge more endearing than anything.

They reach a lull in the crowd, finally, and stand in line to buy some wine. The queue dwindles quickly, though, so it doesn’t take long for Jongin to get a taste.

“I swear these cups are getting smaller every year.” Kyungsoo complains, before he takes a sip, humming. He watches Jongin tentatively raise the cup to his lips, and closes his eyes in pleasure.

“I knew you would like it.” he says, smugly drinking again. It’s almost too sweet for him now, but it brings back memories nonetheless. He decides that if he can’t stomach it, then he can always give what’s left to Jongin, as he seems to be half way finished already.

The hatchling tries to shove his nose into Jongin’s cup, to get a taste too, but Jongin wisely blocks him off.

“Uh...What time does this carol service thing start? The remembrance service, I mean?” Jongin asks, huddled around his wine and slurping it up like a child. He turns his head away as the baby tries to force his way into the cup. “No! You’re not allowed this.” He scolds. Kyungsoo looks up to the clock, floating above the streets, lazily bobbing as it measures the time. Kyungsoo swears. They are supposed to be there early, so that they can be prepped: it’s a public event, after all, and the  first major broadcast with both of them and the hatchling.

“It’s in just under an hour, actually. We should probably start moving, thanks for reminding me.” Kyungsoo says, annoyed that Jongin’s cuteness had distracted him. Normally he’s more organised than this. With Jongin in hot pursuit, Kyungsoo takes off towards the cathedral, its delicate glacial spires a landmark against the rounded roofs of the city.

“Can I just finish-?” Jongin says, trying not to spill his wine as he hurriedly chases after Kyungsoo.

“Quickly.” Kyungsoo says, impatient. He might get into trouble if they’re late- Jongin will get off scot free since he still doesn’t know his way around the city yet, and is relying on Kyungsoo or a guide to take him where he needs to go.

The crowd has thinned out a bit now, since the procession has already passed, so it’s less difficult to dodge and weave through them as they race towards their destination. The baby bounces slightly on Jongin’s back, and growls every so often when Jongin turns; he has to cling tightly, so he doesn’t fall off. The stares and whispers are louder now, more like shouts and pointing, actually, but neither of them hear much as they run by, as fast as their legs will carry them.

 

When the cathedral comes into view, both of them are a mess. One of the magicians greets them at the door, and hurries them off to one side so they can get cleaned up. They both have to leave their old clothes behind, and put on new ones, more formal robes. They are mopped clean, and both of them have their eyes outlined so they can be seen on broadcast, and their hair styled, all as quickly as possible. No one scolds them for being late, but Kyungsoo feels guilty anyway, watching the staff rush around and try to fix everything at the last minute, the hatchling watching the goings on from his perch on top of a chair.

Kyungsoo is put in something similar to the ceremonial robes he wore at the bonding ceremony, but a lot more toned down- white with an emerald green midriff, and layered skirts, though not as many as the ceremonial robe. Jongin is given a dark pink robe, with shimmery bands around his waist and the ends of his sleeves, and Kyungsoo has to remind himself _not_ to stare. He can’t be feeling this way, it’s not right Usually he wears shades of green or red, but Kyungsoo thinks he should wear pinks more often. It suits him, even if he had eyed it warily at first.

“I like these,” Jongin says, flapping his arms up and down so that the sleeves trail a little like the dancers they saw earlier. “They remind me of like...a cross between a hanbok and a kimono.”

“If you say so.” Kyungsoo says, pursing his lips. As usual, he has no idea what he’s talking about.

“I’m sorry to interrupt, but it’s time to go in now.” An attendant says, waiting patiently for them to get up and follow.

A sudden flurry of anxiety flows through the bond, and Kyungsoo reels, until he figures out it’s not his.

“Alright.”Kyungsoo is quick to get up, holding out an arm for the baby to hop onto, and dragging Jongin along by the hand, hoping that the contact might settle his nerves a little. Judging by how tight Jongin is holding onto him, the reality is only just setting in. Kyungsoo knows already which seat they are to be sat in; they’re at the front, of course, between the head magician and a politician that Kyungsoo doesn’t remember the name of.

“It’s going to be fine.” Kyungsoo leans up to whisper in Jongin’s ear as they sit down. “We don’t have to make any speeches, we just have to sing at the right times and bow at the right times. Everything is going to be fine.”

“Thank you.” Jongin murmurs, still looking tense as he gazes up at the stained glass window. He hasn’t been in here since the bonding ceremony, and he didn’t really get a good look at it back then either. Kyungsoo decides to let him be for a moment- constantly talking to him might not help.

Just before the service is due to start, the hatchling hops across from Kyungsoo and onto Jongin’s lap, nuzzling into his stomach. Almost immediately, the buzz of Jongin’s anxiety abates.

“Welcome, everyone, to the six hundred and thirty ninth remembrance service. Please stand.”

The first song begins with an eerie, nostalgic flute, then the congregation begins to sing. Jongin’s eyes are closed as he sings, and his arms wrapped around their baby, keeping him safe.

Kyungsoo smiles peacefully, feeling like everything is as it should be right now, and joins the song.

 

  

  

  

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the first drawing was done by @elo_poisson on twitter, and the second one is my own drawing :>


	7. The Hoard

Dressed and ready for the day, Kyungsoo is now fully prepared to start his daily grind. This morning, that means food shopping, and later this afternoon both he and Jongin have another school visit- this time out of the city. Kyungsoo is looking forward to taking Jongin outside of the city boundaries, where less people live and more plants and animals thrive. He says it’s the same where he comes from, but Kyungsoo is absolutely positive that there is going to be some major differences and he can’t wait to find out what those might be.

He opens his bag and makes sure that he has everything that he needs for a shopping trip- his wallet, being the most important thing on his list. It’s there, but when he lifts it, it feels a little light. Frowning, he opens it up. Their food allowance was given to them only two days ago, so it should still be almost full, but there’s only a handful of coins in there. How odd. Shrugging to himself, and wondering if maybe Jongin has bought something expensive without telling him, he heads into the atrium where the other boy is most likely to be, playing with the baby.

“Jongin!” he calls out, hands cupped around his mouth. He emerges from the jungle-like underbrush after a moment, clothing rumpled and laughing as the baby runs up and down his back. It looks like his claws are tickling him.

“Yeah?” Jongin asks with a giggle, reflexively jerking away from the hatchling as he nips his ear. The scene is so cute and domestic, it takes Kyungsoo a few moments to form the words. Recovering, he shakes his head and puts his hand on his hip.

“Have you been spending our food allowance?” He asks, narrowing his eyes at him. Jonign looks away, and Kyungsoo catches a whiff of guilt radiating through the bond.

“I haven’t bought anything, don’t worry.”

“Ok. But you know what happened to all the money.” Kyungsoo states, with no room for denial. Jongin shrugs, still not looking his way. The hatchling seems to read the atmosphere too, as he has stilled on Jongin’s shoulder, head cocked to the side as he watches Kyungsoo.

“Jongin.” Kyungsoo warns, raising one eyebrow and starting to get annoyed. “If you don’t tell me what’s going on, I swear I’ll- I’ll-” He pinches the bridge of his nose. He has nothing to threaten him with.

“It’s just a game.” Jongin says, “Don’t worry about it.”

“What’s just a game?” Kyungsoo wonders, confused now. Taking money is just a game, now? What on earth could that mean?

“If you look at the baby’s nest, you’ll understand.” He says cryptically, reaching up to take the hatchling into his arms, cradling him like a baby. The tiny dragon, who is getting almost too big for this kind of treatment now, struggles to right himself, making small indignant noises as he scrambles up Jongin’s chest and shoves his nose into his neck, wings flapping wildly. He laughs again, roughhousing with the baby dragon and falling back into the foliage with a surprised shout. Kyungsoo shakes his head, unable to stay mad at him for long. He feels sometimes like he owes it to Jongin to let him be a kid now and then, after what he’s told him of his life, missing out on a good chunk of teenage years the way he did. He’s going to ruin his clothes, though, if he keeps this up.

Now, what did he mean about a nest?

He’s a little pissed that Jongin knew about a nest of any kind before him, but that might just be because Jongin spends so much time playing with the baby out here, rather than inside the house where Kyungsoo prefers to reside. He’s a little more reluctant to climb the trees and get dirty than Jongin, but the baby dragon seems to be warming up to him at mealtimes more, and always sits on his lap when they’re watching broadcasts or just talking.

On a mission now, Kyungsoo first scours the main house for what Jongin might have meant, but failing to find it there, he searches through the atrium. With the soundtrack of Jongin’s dorky laughter, and the shrill cries of the baby as they play together, he begins phase two of his search. He starts at ground level looking into the shrubbery and roots of the trees, but when that proves fruitless as well, he looks towards the skies. Up in the canopy of the trees, close to the back of the atrium, is a web of branches that have been pulled together and bound by some long leaves. That has to be it. But how is he supposed to see inside?

The only way is to climb up there like Jongin probably does. Pursing his lips, Kyungsoo pushes the cuffs of his tunic up to his elbows, and looks for a good place to start climbing. It’s not easy going, since he hasn’t really done this before- he rarely played outside as a child, more likely to be stuck inside reading or watching broadcasts, and then he was studying most of the time.

Eventually, though, he makes it up there, craning his neck to see inside.

SParkles. THat’s the first thing he registers. This is where all the coins have been disappearing to? And it’s not just coins, either; there’s miscellaneous bits of shiny materials that Kyungsoo has never seen before, and some things he has. A spoon, a shiny stone, and some ribbon sit prettily amongst the mounds of gold and silver coins the baby has amassed. A hoard; a natural heavenly reptile instinct.

Kyungsoo sighs, unsure what to do now. He’d feel bad taking all this away from the baby, but they really do need to eat.

Grumbling to himself, he climbs all the way down again and dusts himself off. What can be done about this?

First of all, he needs to talk with Jongin about it, since he seemed to already know about what was going on. How had the baby even gotten into the purse in the first place? And how long had this been going on for? Quite a while, judging by how large his hoard had become.

It doesn’t take long o find Jongin again, it’s so easy just to follow the sound of his laughter. He wants to be angry, to stand over him and leer at him, but the sight of them playing is so cute he can’t force himself to. The hatchling is underneath Jongin’s clothes, writhing underneath his tunic and chirruping merrily.

He coughs loudly to get catch the younger boy’s attention, and feels a bit like the bad guy when Jongin looks up, smile drooping off his face.

“I take it you found his nest, then.” Jongin says, sitting up. The baby dragon’s head pops out of his collar, silent again.

“I did.” Kyungsoo mumbles. “How long have you known about it?”

“Well, I um...I guess I kinda started it?”

“What?” Kyungsoo raises his upper lip, “you started it?”

“Yeah. I had some change which I left out on the table, and the next thing I knew, the baby had run off with it and gone up a tree.”

“That wasn’t exactly your fault, Jongin.” Kyungsoo starts, but Jongin shakes his head.

“He seemed so happy that after that I started leaving out coins for him to find.” He says, head hanging like he knows he’s going to get yelled at. Kyungsoo blanches, having to push down a surge of irritation down before Jongin can feel it too, and closes his eyes.

“Oh, _Jongin_.” He sighs, making the boy wince.

“I know, I shouldn’t have done it.”

“You shouldn’t have, you’re right. Please, don’t do it any more. We need that money to buy food, alright? We can’t eat air.” He explains, crouching down in front of him and placing a hand on his knee. He retracts it a moment later when he realises what he just did, the palm of his hand burning.

“I know, I know.” Jongin mumbles, running his fingers through the dragon’s mane.

“Also, he doesn’t just like money, there’s other things up there too. We can ask for a bag of buttons or something to replace it- if you had just _told_ me, then we could have sorted something out.” Kyungsoo shakes his head again.

“I’m sorry.”

“Alright. It’s ok, it’s in the past now. I’ll talk to head magician about it later on, or maybe tomorrow.” He says, standing up. He hopes Jongin isn’t going to beat himself up over this. “I was about to go food shopping, do you two want to come with me, or are you going to stay here?”

“We’ll come with you.” Jongin, says, face snapping up to look at Kyungsoo with renewed energy. “I want to try some of those stripey things.”

“The bananas?” Kyungsoo raises an eyebrow. “Alright, but I don’t like them, so you’re going to have to finish the whole thing.”

“Alright, I can live with that.” Jongin says, awkwardly hauling himself upright with the baby in his arms. Kyungsoo doesn’t offer to help. Hand still tingling from touching him earlier. It never gets easier, even though they still sleep together, and sometimes wake up too close for comfort.

“You’re going to change out of those clothes as well.” He sniffs, looking Jongin up and down.

“Fine.” Jongin laughs, pulling it out and looking at it as if for the first time. “It _is_ pretty dirty.” He agrees.

 

Jongin still hasn’t gotten up yet; they’re going to be late at this rate. Deliberating for a while, Kyungsoo paces back and forth in the kitchen until he gets a sudden shock of pain, wringing at his stomach. It’s gone as quickly as it came, but now Kyungsoo is even more worried. Was that from Jongin? Their shared bond? Is this why he’s still in bed.

He stalks over to their room and pounds on the door.

“Jongin? Are you ok?” He asks, listening carefully for any kind of response. He must be sick. He knocks again, this time a low, pathetic groan can be heard from within. Kyungsoo waves his hand over the crystal, letting himself in.

Jongin is curled up on the bed, a bundle of blankets surrounding him as he clutches at his stomach. His eyelashes are damp, and he looks like he’s been crying. How has he been hiding all this from him? Kyungsoo’s heart clenches, and he rushes to kneel down beside him, using the back of his hand to measure the other boy’s temperature by resting it on his forehead.

“Are you sick? Jongin, tell me what’s wrong.”

“Not sick. Just really bad cramps. Worst I’ve had in a long time.”

“Oh, uh. Is there anything I can do?”

“Not really. I think my body just wants to get in one last ty period before it stops completely.” He grunts, with a wry look in his eye. In a few days he’ll be getting his first dose of elixir, and then soon after that his menstruation should stop. Kyungsoo can tell that he’s embarrassed by this situation. He’s proud of him for not lying to him or trying to hide it, like he might have done when they first met.

“Should I cancel the school visit?” Kyungsoo asks, erring on the side of yes already. Jongin nods feebly.

“I’m sorry. Usually it’s not this bad. I would like to if I could, I just think that if I get up I might puke.”

“Don’t...don’t get up.” Kyungsoo frowns, concerned and not wanting to have to clean that up. Perhaps he should call a magician, and ask if there’s a pain relief ritual he could do that would work well. Or maybe an an ordinary mixture would be fine, the kind most people keep in their bathroom cabinets. Yes, Kyugnsoo thinks, that would be the best option.

“I’ll be right back.” He informs Jongin, standing up. The poor boy’s only response is to groan, and it makes Kyungsoo want to take care of him even more. He hesitates for a moment, then pats Jongin’s head before he leaves. As soon as he does it, Kyungsoo feels a little stupid- Jongin is not a pet, why did he do that? A flush rises on his cheeks as he rifles through the cabinet in the bathroom. Jongin’s hair is soft to the touch. He wouldn’t mind brushing his hair sometimes, in the mornings. His chest twinges at the thought: that’s something that long-bonded couples do, not friends. Or people that fell into a bonding spell by accident. Shaking his head, he rushes back into the bedroom with the pain relief drink, in a small bottle with a white label on it, and a spoon to administer it with.

The baby dragon is waiting by the door when he gets back, mewling mournfully. Through their bond, Kyungsoo catches a glimpse of Jongin, and the feeling of anxiousness.

“You too, huh?” Kyungsoo comments, swiping at the crystal but this time leaving the door open, so the dragon can get in and out at will. He hops up immediately onto the bed, crawling along Jongin’s side and sniffling around his neck and ear. It looks ticklish.

“Jongin, can you sit up?” Kyungsoo asks. Jongin cracks his eyes open a little and, spotting the bottle in Kyungsoo’s hand, makes an effort to do just that. The baby dragon is dislodged in the movement, and chirrups once before scampering out into the corridor again.

“I don’t know how much this will help, but it’s worth a try anyway, right?” Kyungsoo says, taking in Jongin’s pained expression, and the perspiration on his forehead.

“Yeah.” Jongin agrees, holding out his hands for the medicine. Kyungsoo falters, somehow having imagined him feeding Jongin the liquid, but quickly hands it over anyway, hoping Jongin doesn’t notice his momentary hesitation.

Jongin measures out the mixture carefully. He doesn’t spill any, and when he’s done, he gives it back to Kyungsoo with thanks.

“You’re welcome.” Kyungsoo says. “I’ll just go call the head magician and tell him.”

“Ok.” Jongin mumbles, already curling back under the covers. As he leaves, the baby scurries inside, leaping onto the bed with his leafy wings outstretched.

The conversation with the head magician is not very long. He understands within minutes, and agrees to inform the headteacher of the school that only Kyungsoo will be able to make it. Kyungsoo apologises on Jongin behalf a few times, but the head magician brushes them aside.

“It’s nothing to worry about, Kyungsoo. I know you’ve done this enough times to handle it on your own. The head of the school, and all the students, will understand. Just tell Jongin not to worry about it too much as well, alright? It’s not his fault.”

“I will, sir. Thank you.” Kyungsoo bows his head a little before he ends the connection. It will be strange talking about everything without Jongin by his side- he’s gotten used to having him there. How strange, when before the bonding ceremony, he had thought he would only have the dragon beside him.

When he heads back into Jongin’s room, the baby dragon wedges his way through the door just before him, scrambling onto the bed and depositing a mouthful of shiny objects next to him. There’s already a pile of coins and other things there. They must be from his hoard, Kyungsoo deduces. He is is about to scold the dragon for bringing dirty things into their still-shared bed, but Jongin is smiling so brightly that the words die on his tongue.

Jongin brings the small dragon into his lap, stroking it’s mane and laying kisses onto it’s nose. He calls him precious, sweetheart, and clever, and makes his voice turn strange and almost unintelligible. It’s not the first time Jongin has done this: apparently it’s how he used to treat his ‘dogs’ when he was younger, but every time he does it Kyungsoo melts a little. Soon, the dragon will probably tell them to stop patronising him, like any child would as they grow older and mature. Kyungsoo wants to treasure these times while they can. As subtly as he can, he uses his photomancy crystal to record Jongin’s adoration of the hatchling dragon. He is not subtle.

“Hey!” Jongin squawks hiding behind the dragon’s wing. “What do you think you’re doing?!”

“It was just a photo.” Kyungsoo sulks, putting the crystal away into a fold of his shirt. It probably turned out blurry anyway.

“You can use that for taking photos?” Jongin perks up. Kyungsoo nods.

“Do you want me to show you how?”

“Yes, but when you get back from visiting the school. Aren’t you supposed to be leaving soon?”

“Oh! You’re right.” Kyungsoo jolts abruptly, realising the time and rushing to prepare himself. This is not the first time that he has lost all sense of time management because of Jongin. He hopes that this isn’t going to become a habit.

 

Kyungsoo pets the hatchling’s mane nervously, using the repetitive movement as something to focus on that _isn’t_ worrying about Jongin. He’s inside a room right now, being examined more thoroughly so that an elixir can be made for him, since half of what needs to be changed is internal, rather than external. Jongin had said that it was a lot like hormone treatment where he comes from. Kyungsoo had nodded like he understood and carried on preparing their dinner as Jongin scoured through the leaflet he’d given him for maybe the sixth time.

Kyungsoo had flicked through the leaflet once too, and he had noticed a lot of things listed in there in Jongin; anxiousness, self-consciousness, and dysphoria, which was explained as a mixture of awful feelings, of feeling like a person doesn’t belong in the body they have. He’s very conscious of his own body, and won’t wander around the house in just a underwear like Kyungsoo sometimes does. Jongin also becomes very upset if anyone remarks that he likes things that are typically feminine, or not masculine- not visibly, but Kyungsoo is able to feel his internal panic, the sudden fear that he isn’t being ‘boyish’ enough. Once, when Jongin had been at home alone all day, Kyungsoo had come home to an overwhelming sensation of disgust, of self loathing. Kyungsoo had wanted to hug him, to tell him that everything would be alright in the end, but he couldn’t bring himself to. Didn’t know what to say. The baby dragon was better at comforting him than he would have been anyway, nuzzling his nose into the crook of Jongin’s neck and tickling him until he finally giggled.

Since then, Jongin has become much better at keeping his feelings to himself.

Kyungsoo had been inside the examination room with Jongin as well, at first, but had been asked him to leave for the examination itself. It was fair enough, Kyungsoo supposes, since he didn’t need to have a bond between them to feel the embarrassment radiating from him like light from a bonfire. But even so, Kyungsoo worries about him, even though there really is nothing to worry about. Jongin hasn’t even been in there for very long, only about twenty minutes, but Kyungsoo is feeling so antsy.

They’re probably talking about all the details of the changes that can happen, and Kyungsoo guesses Jongin didn’t want him to hear all that stuff; it could be pretty intimate after all. They need to ask some really personal questions in order to get everything right for him, so it doesn’t damage his system in some way. There might be a physical exam of some kind as well, he recalls Jongin saying something about that as well. He definitely shouldn’t be in there for _that_.

He sighs, sinking back into his seat in the waiting room a little, his silken shirt slipping a little too far so he has to readjust everything.

Kyungsoo wonders how long it’s going to take exactly, as he hasn’t been to an appointment like this, and he doesn’t know anyone that has. He doesn’t have many friends at all, really. The only person he knows well that’s around his age is Jongin, and that was only by accident. If it weren’t for him, then he’d only have the baby. Which would be fine, once the hatchling is old enough to talk to him, but in the meantime it would probably have been lonely.

Once the appointment is done, Kyungsoo wants to find somewhere they can eat together, all of them. It will be a bit of a challenge, seeing as they might get mobbed as soon as they set foot in any restaurant, but Kyungsoo still enjoys eating food that others have cooked for him. And...it also feels like they’re more than just two boys who were thrown together by chance. It feels like they’re choosing to spend time together, and it feels like they might eventually fall together.

Understanding that Jongin might want to take his elyxir home and put it somewhere safe as soon as possible, Kyungsoo prepares himself for disappointment, but practices saying it in his head anyway. This would be much easier if he had someone to talk it through with.

“When are you gonna start talking, huh?” He hums, running his index finger along the tiny dragon’s horn. Actually, come to think of it, the dragon isn’t that small anymore. He shifts with the dragon on his lap, wondering how much he weighs now. Probably quite a lot, which would explain why his legs are starting to go numb. They’ll have to stop calling him a hatchling soon.

“You’re like a rock.” Kyungsoo complains out loud, smirking when he senses a spark of indignation through their bond. “I’m sorry,” Kyungsoo says, “but soon you’re going to be too heavy for us to carry.”

The door clicks open just as the small angry dragon sits up to nip irritatedly at Kyungsoo’s jaw, making little grizzly noises of disapproval.

“Jongin!” Kyungsoo exclaims, jostling the baby and dislodging him onto the floor. Jongin grins widely, and clutches at a clear bottle filled with what Kyungsoo assumes is the elyxir he’s been made. It looks pretty ordinary, like any kind of healing mixture, but the way Jongin is holding it makes it seem like a precious gemstone in his hands.

“Make sure you remember to take it every morning.” A magician reminds him, from inside the room. Jongin turns around with a glowing smile, and nods eagerly.

“I won’t forget!” He promises, bouncing slightly on his toes. The corner of Kyungsoo’s lips curl up seeing him this happy, feeling his glee almost as if it’s his own.

“Good. I’ll see you in two weeks for your next dose, then.” The magician says, waving them off as they leave.”

Kyungsoo and Jongin both bow a few times again, polite and formal, and head outside into the sunshine. Jongin looks good in the sun. The baby dragon pads along beside them, holding his head up high to get a better look at what’s going on. They get a few stares from the people doing their business that day, and some whispering, but they’re used to that by now.

“So, that went well, I take it?” Kyungsoo nudges Jongin to speak, knowing that he’s itching to tell him all about it.

“Yes! At first she was just asking questions about my dysphoria- you know what that is, right? Yeah- well she figured out exactly what kind I was dealing with, and then she gave me a body examination, and we talked about what I liked and didn’t like. For preparation.” Kyungsoo nods, a smiling indulgently; it’s not often that Jongin speaks so much at once.

“Then she did some other tests, using magic I think, which measured my hormones maybe? I’m not exactly sure. Anyway, after that she used, like, alchemy equipment? With all the spirally tubes? To make up my elyxir.”

“And that’s what you’ve got there?” Kyungsoo inclines his head towards the bottle cradles in his arms.

“Yep.”Jongin confirms gleefully. “But when you said it would probably be like a potion I was kinda expecting some foul smelling, green or brown mushy, lumpy... _goop._ But this is almost like water.” He says, swirling it around in the bottle.

“It looks pretty normal, yeah.” Kyungsoo agrees. He takes a breath, and sums up the courage. “Would...would you like to go somewhere for dinner, before we go home?” He asks tentatively. But to his surprise, Jongin slips the bottle into his bag, and slings it onto his back, looking at Kyungsoo with one eyebrow raised.

“Are you asking me out?”

“Yes.” Kyungsoo frowns, his heart stuttering at Jongin’s suggestive expression. He just asked him to eat, what was unclear about that? Kyungsoo is confused. He outright refuses to listen to the tiny part of his brain that is telling him to flirt back. Jongin seems to take pity on him, after a moment of watching him floundering, and tilts his head fondly in a way that makes Kyungsoo think that Jongin was just joking. Still confused, Kyungsoo is both relieved and disappointed.

“Where did you want to go?” Jongin inquires, a curl on one side of his mouth.

“I’ve heard there’s a really nice place that does traditional Ohkwangan food near the cathedral. You wanna try there?”

“Yeah, that sounds great.” Jongin smiles, looking out across the rooftops to spot the delicately pointed spires of the building. Kyungsoo’s heart clenches.

“This way.” He says, leading them towards their destination.

 

Kyungsoo was right about being mobbed as soon as they went outside. He should really ask if the head magician would approve of someone around to help them with these kinds of situation, where people are crowding around them, people left right and centre asking for autographs and to touch the dragon. The baby had hissed at them when they reached out towards him, which served them right, in Kyungsoo’s opinion. What would it take before they understood that he didn’t like being touched by strangers? A bite? To be honest, Kyungsoo wouldn’t mind seeing that.

When they finally reach the restaurant that Kyungsoo had in mind, both of them are run ragged. Jongin in particular is a bit of a mess, inside and out. He must be nervous that someone might discover where they just come from- despite that fact that Kyungsoo has assured him time and time again that no one will think anything of it, he refuses to make it public knowledge.

The restaurant is a typical kind of eatery, with high tables and gold and dark pink embroidered tapestries on the walls.

“Table for two?” Kyungsoo asks the stunned server at the door, as the two of them burst in. The rest of the clientele looks up as well, astonished at their sudden entrance. Kyungsoo takes in their curious faces, staring at them and the dragon perched on Jongin’s shoulders. “Somewhere a little private, maybe?” He asks again hopefully. He should have called ahead. The server nods, speechless, and leads them further towards the back of the establishment, through a door and into a separate part of the restaurant with no one else. It’s very private in here, much more than Kyungsoo had expected when he asked. Maybe it’s the staff room? He feels guilty, all of a sudden, for putting pressure on the people that work here. Jongin brushes his hand against Kyungsoo’s comfortingly, which has him instantaneously clamming up; he hadn’t meant to let his feelings leak like that.

“Here you are.” The server says, gesturing uncertainly to a table in the corner, shielded from the rest of the patrons. “You can use the crystal on the table to access the menu and order. Will you need anything else?” She looks pointedly at the baby dragon. Jongin looks to Kyungsoo for instruction after the server leaves, standing awkwardly. Kyungsoo inclines his head for them to sit down. It’s very….cosy, is what Kyungsoo realises when they do.

“It’s the same as the crystals at home, or in the magician’s guild.” Kyungsoo explains, waving his hand over the pretty stone set into the wood in demonstration. A shimmering mirage appears inside the crystal: a list of meals available.

“Kyungsoo, I still can’t read most of this.” Jongin confesses, staring at the delicacies as Kyungsoo scrolls past them.

“Ah. A lot of it is seafood. Is there any type of flavour you particularly want right now? I’ll see if I can find you something.” The dragon, stood on the table like the little rascal he is, noses at the crystal and sends the menu back to the beginning. Kyungsoo tuts and pushes him away into Jongin’s arms, where he stares at Kyungsoo sullenly.

“Uh...maybe salty? Seafood?”

“As in fish?” Kyugnsoo clarifies, skipping straight to that section of the menu. “Sure. There’s soup, pie, curry, the more traditional Ohkwangan fishballs...what do you fancy?”

“I don’t know. What are you going to have? I’ll just have the same as you.”

“Two fishballs it is, then.” Kyungsoo selects their options, and requests a slice of raw fish for the dragon so that he doesn’t try to steal their food from them. “That should take about twenty minutes, apparently.” He informs Jongin.

The first few minutes of the wait are filled with silence. Kyungsoo is agitated, looking all around him at the decor instead of Jongin, who he can see is petting the baby dragon from the corner of his eye.

Jongin yawns, long and loud, making the dragon chirrup cutely at him in response.

“Tired?” Kyungsoo asks, concerned. Maybe everything going on has been taking more out of him than he thought. Hopefully now that his treatment has started, things will get just a little easier for him.

“Yeah, a little. Not sleeping very well.” Jongin mumbles, shaking his head to wake up a little more.

“Oh, really?” Kyungsoo frowns. For some reason, Jongin is hiding his face behind the dragon’s wings, as it totters between them. His hands are in his lap too, and his posture tense. “Why not?”

“Oh, um.” Jongin clears his throat uncomfortably. “You sort of… move around a lot in the night?”

“I...what?” Kyungsoo flushes. It’s _his_ fault that Jongin is tired? “, I’m sorry.” Kyungsoo stammers. “Feel free to push me away if I’m bothering you.” He says seriously. He’s quite a heavy sleeper, but even if Jongin did manage to wake him up, it might help him to unconsciously stop shifting around too much.

“Ah, no, its uh… not that bad.” Jongin rushes to reassure him, face colouring to the roots of his hair. “Don’t worry too much!It’s not that bad.”

“But it’s causing you to get less sleep. Should I sleep in the living room? Maybe we should push the head magician to get a separate bed after all.” He muses. At first he hadn’t wanted to kick up a fuss and be seen as a spoilt brat. Then he had just kinda….. Stopped thinking about it after a few days of sharing the bed, and since then he’d forgotten about even needing another one. As far as he had been able to tell, neither of them minded that much. Well, Kyungsoo kind of did, a little, because it put him in such close proximity with Jongin who he definitely had a crush on, but Jongin didn’t mind. So he didn’t talk about it.

“No!” Jongin blurts out, causing the dragon to skitter away from him in surprise and Kyungsoo to look up in shock. “Sorry. I mean, no; you don’t have to go to any trouble. It’s fine, really!” He

“Uh. Ok.” Kyungsoo purses his lips and tries to think of something else to say. Luckily, he doesn’t have to, as that moment their server walks over with their meals.

Jongin’s eyes widen as she sets them down on the table in front of them, mouth falling open. Kyungsoo, glad for the distraction, thinks he hasn’t had traditional food like this yet. Most of the things Kyungsoo knows how to make are curries and stews, nothing that takes time to create and look pretty, like these.

Their food is served in a deep, glass bowl, taller than it is wide. It’s filled to the brim with small, spherical leaves.

“Kyungsoo, what are these? Do they grow naturally like that?” Jongin asks, thinking back to the trees in the school garden.

“Yeah, they do. It’s so that the plant can collect water and save it for later.”

“Like a cactus?”

“Uh. Sure.” Kyungsoo shrugs, as he always does when Jongin brings up things from his home world. “These are filled with fish and vegetable, though. Not water.”

“No, that would be a bit boring.” Jongin agrees, picking up the spoon. “Do you bite it? Or eat it in one go?” Jongin wonders, looking at it seriously from several different angles. The dragon scooches over a little too close, so Kyungsoo pushes him away, telling him to eat his own food.

“You eat it in one mouthful.” Kyungsoo demonstrates, using his fingers to pick one off the top and put it in his mouth. He closes his eyes as the flavour bursts on his tongue, humming lowly. It’s so good. He’d missed having good food like this: it’s been a long time. The last time he had a fancy meal was when he found out he was going to be the next dragon protector. That time he’d been by himself, though. It’s much nicer being able to share the experience with someone else.

“This is so good!” Jongin exclaims, eyes sparkling. Kyungsoo can’t help but agree, but it’s not just the food that he has in mind.

“It is.” Kyungsoo nods, watching Jongin chew happily, his cheeks puffed up. He can’t tell where the warm fuzzy feeling inside him is coming from but he doesn’t really mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you have any questions let me know! Ill do my best to answer them ( i am not trans myself, so on the flipside if there's anything you think i could do better let me know that too! )


	8. Chapter Eight: The Interview

Shoulder to shoulder, Kyungsoo and Jongin stand at the counter in the kitchen. Kyungsoo took it upon himself to try and teach Jongin how to make some traditional Anhan dishes. It's honestly going far better than he had expected: while Jongin didn't cook much while he was living on his own, before that he was pretty good at fending for himself. His mother didn't cook much, he told him, so that meant if he wanted anything nice he either had to nag his dad or do it himself.

After their date- Kyungsoo still blushes to call it that- Jongin had taken much more of an interest in food. Both eating it and preparing it. He has asked about getting some lessons in cooking, and Kyungsoo had found some recipes somewhere on the crystal net but so much of it was like gobledegook to him that Kyungsoo had to step in and help.

"Cut it thinner." Kyungsoo encourages, using his knife delicately to peel a layer off the side. Jongin nods, mirroring his actions. They're slicing up what Jongin called 'basically a really long potato' to wrap around some fruit. They had already tried out making the fishballs, with vegetable substitute instead of the fish, which was pretty successful, and now they've moved onto desserts. The goal of this one is to wrap the thin vegetable, which is very mild in flavour, around some mixed berries that have been heavily spiced, and then bake them.

"Don’t we need to make the soak, first?" Jongin asks, suddenly fretting. Kyungsoo leans into him, shaking his head.

"No, we can do that in a moment. One step at a time." Kyungsoo says, squinting to read the instructions to make sure he really is doing this in the right order. Jongin is technically right; they should have made the sauce to soak the vegetables in first. Oops.

"Actually," he says, putting down his knife, "I'll just get started on making that now."

"I thought you were supposed to be good at this." Jongin laughs, not taking his eyes off what he's doing. Kyungsoo can feel his mirth coming strong through the bond, and he rolls his eyes as he opens the cooler.

"I've never made this one before." He says petulantly. Why does he expect him to know everything about this world? Jongin hardly knows anything about his own. He pulls an egg out of the fridge, and grabs the sugar from the cupboard above Jongin's head. He deliberately elbows Jongin in the head as he passes him by.

"Ow." Jongin whines, glaring playfully at him.

"Oh, don't be a baby." Kyungsoo reprimands, pouring the egg into a bowl with a bit of water and mixing in the sugar.

"Is that what we're soaking this in?" He points to the yam, now completely sliced, and Kyungsoo nods. "How long does it need? Long enough for me to go find the baby? I think he stole my phone. I mean, I know it doesn’t work anymore but it has sentimental value."

"I don't know. If you left it out then he might’ve taken it." Kyungsoo says, cracking the egg into the bowl and mixing that in, along with the sugar. It will need some water as well, and in the other bowl he will mix the rest of the berries up with more sugar and a ton of spices. 

"What does it say?" Jongin asks, leaning over to peer at the cryscreen, a little too close for comfort. Kyungsoo hopes his sudden gasp wasn't audible.

"Can you even read that?" Kyungsoo asks, partly teasing but also genuinely curious. He gets out another bowl and decants the berries into it, along with a healthy coating of sugar.

"No..." Jongin sulks. "Can the head magician make me able to read? Like he made be able to talk with you guys?"

"You'd have to ask him; I'm not a magician so I have no idea."

"Ok, I'll see if I can talk to him about that then." The next time they visit for a progress update, Jongin might bring it up then.

"Or you could try learning it the normal way?" Kyungsoo probes.

"Noo, why would I do that? I already learnt to read once, why go through all that hassle again?" He laughs, then sighs. "Sure, I'll give it a go. Will you help me?"

"Only if you can compensate me." Kyungsoo bargains, pouring in the spices at last. Two different kinds, one a bit sweeter than the other but both pretty hot.

"How am I meant to do that? Whoa, isn't that quite a lot?" Jongin asks, eyeing the mound of orange-red powder warily.

"I don't know, just....make it worth my while." He smirks. "And no? Are you not very good with spicy food or something?"

"I’m not.... _ bad _ with them, exactly." Jongin defends, cheeks pinking.

"You're lying, I can feel it." Kyungsoo laughs. "Aw, it's nothing to be embarrassed about! I can still get a bit of it out, it's not too late." He grabs a spoon and takes out as much of the dry powder as he can.

"I'm not that bad!" Jongin insists, folding his arms across his chest, "I had a friend, Chanyeol, who couldn't eat anything just a  _ little _ bit spicy, he would start tearing up and everything."  His voice cracks on the last word, a side effect of taking the realignment elixir. Kyungsoo makes no comment, but he knows it hits him hard. His voice is getting a little deeper these days, which is good. It means the treatment is working smoothly, and Kyungsoo is proud of him for sticking through it all. He carries on as if it never happened.

"Oh, that sounds terrible." Kyungsoo snorts, imagining the poor soul struggling eating.

"Why are you laughing." Jongin pouts, "Ugh, let's just put the fake potatoes in the bowl."

"They're yams, not 'potatoes'." Kyungsoo corrects him gently, lifting the finely sliced pieces and depositing them in the bowl to soak. "Have you actually seen the baby? I haven't since this morning when he woke us up."

"No. I was going to look for him in the atrium now." Jongin explains, shyness still lingering. "Do you want to come with?"

"Why not." Kyungsoo hums, covering up their bowls so that the baby doesn't sneak out and get into them while they're away. He's smart enough that this could easily be a ruse to lure them away from the sweet berries. "Do you think he might be up in his nest?"

"Probably." Jongin nods, opening the door of the atrium and looking up into the canopy high above. Kyungsoo has to really concentrate to see anything, but the baby is too well camouflaged for him to see anything.

He had understood to stop taking their spare change, after a few attempted conversations- Jongin was convinced that it wouldn’t work, but Kyungsoo had faith in their baby. He’s far smarter than most people assume, and Kyungsoo can see it in his eyes that he understands everything going on around him. He has since stopped taking coins, but not given the ones he has back. It’s probably a lost cause, Kyungsoo thinks resignedly.

"Helloo~" Jongin calls out, hands cupped around his mouth to carry the sound better. There's no response. Kyungsoo and Jongin share a look.

"What's the chances he's asleep?"

"None." Kyugnsoo deadpans. "He's playing with us. C'mon, we have to find him." He steps out into the bushes, Jongin hot on his heels as he lifts a broad leaf branch.

It doesn't take too long before they hear a familiar tell-tale skittering in the trees above them. The baby dragon is clearly having the time of his life, gliding past them when their backs are turned, and messing with them.

He skitters over their feet, making Kyungsoo yelp.

"You little- I could have hurt you!" He calls out.

_ Who? _ A voice that isn't his own filters into his consciousness. Kyungsoo looks at Jongin sharply.

"Did you hear that?" He asks. Jongin nods, mouth falling open in glee.

"Our baby is talking!" He gasps, covering his wide smile with his hand. "I knew it was going to happen but it's still so shocking! Oh my god, our baby is talking to us telepathically, that's so cool!"  He squeals.

"What did he mean, though?" Kyungsoo wonders, searching through the leaves to catch another glimpse of their baby. He likes it maybe a little too much when Jongin says that.

"He said 'who?'." Jongin muses. "Maybe...I don't know. What did you mean by 'who'?" He calls out. There's a short quiet period, wherein they wait with bated breath for the baby dragon's answer. His voice, quiet as a whisper in their minds, responds;

_ I am not 'you'. I am Im Namyeong. _

"Namyeong? That's such a cute name." Jongin laughs. "Is it a dragon name or something? Is there such a thing?"

"It's not a dragon specific name, no. It means 'forest'." Kyungsoo smiles indulgently, pride flooding his senses. "He really is his parents' child."

"They're both forest dragons too, right?" Jongin asks, still looking around for the baby, Namyeong, to appear. Kyungsoo nods.

"Yeah, he has traits from both of them. They'll probably want to meet him soon."

"Soon? So we'll get to meet them as well?" Jongin asks, eyes wide. "They're gonna be huge, right? Oh my god, it's going to be terrifying."

"Yeah, it's certainly... humbling. Did I ever tell you about the time I met Moonbyeol? I was so scared I thought I was going to faint, but I didn't." He recalls having to crane his neck just to see the dragon's eyes, until she laid her chin down on her foreleg. Even then, she was so much larger than him that he was still looking up to see her properly.

"No, I don't think you ever did tell me about that. Why did you go see that dragon?"

"It was an interview. It was so that they could help decide if I was the right person for the job."

"Lucky that you were, then." Jongin smiles at Kyungsoo, warmth throbbing through their bond strongly enough to make Kyungsoo flush violently. The sound of reptilian laughter echoes through the treetops.

"Yeah." He grunts. He turns instead to the foliage, calling out, "Namyeong? Can you come here please?"

The small dragon, now reaching up to Kyungsoo's knee in height, skitters through the foliage and scales the side of a tree head first. He claws sink into the bark to steady himself, before he raises his head, wings quivering. He seems to prefer using his wings for gliding only at the moment, though Jongin thinks that might just be because there isn't enough space for him to fly properly.

"Since when did you know that?" Kyungsoo asks, stroking the fur around his neck. Namyeong closes his eyes and leans into the touch. This is all very sudden; in the books and accounts he's heard from other dragon protectors, the telepathic bond comes a lot more gradually than this.

_ I have been experimenting recently. I can remember things that came before me, and so I remembered my name _

Jongin blinks owlishly, staring between Kyungsoo and the dragon, utterly confused.

"What do you mean you 'saw things that came before you'?" He frowns. "How is that possible?" The young dragon chirrups, one of his eyes opening to stare into Jongin's.

_ I do not pretend to understand the workings of dragon magic. I just know what I know. _

"Dragons are weird." Jongin comments, not meaning any harm by the comment. Namyeon closes his eye again, and nudges Kyungsoo's hand to make him carry on petting him.

Kyungsoo grins, "Im Namyeong. Son of Im Baram and Im Yeongmi." He announces, to no one in particular. "Well done on finding your own name." He praises, ruffling the fur more and leaning in to kiss him on the nose.

"We need to tell head magician about this, don't we?" Jongin asks quietly, moving in closer to lay some affection on the small creature as well. Namyeong backs up a little, and jumps into Jongin's arms, nuzzling his scaly face into the crook of his neck.

"Yeah." Kyungsoo nods. That will mean they have to reveal the baby's name to the public, as well. More appearances on public broadcasts, and more and more interviews. It's going to be so dreary. 

_ That can wait. I would like to be fed, now. _ Naemyeon says, settling comfortably against Jongin, who gives Kyungsoo a look. Their baby is spoilt.

“Sure. Come inside with us and we’ll get you something. What would you like?”

_ Fruit. _ Namyeon replies primly.

“Ok, baby, we’ll get you something.” Jongin promises.

_ I am no longer ‘the baby’, please call me by my name. _ Namyeon implores.

“Sorry Namyeong. Where I come from people use that as a term of endearment, like sweetheart or cutiepie. Am I not allowed to call you those anymore either?”

_ No. I prefer to be recognised for my wealth. And might. _

“Well, you’re going to have to give it a bit of time before you’re recognised for either of those things. You’re not even a year old yet.” Jongin smiles, petting the young dragon’s mane gently. Despite wanting to be known as fearsome, there isn’t a soul who would be afraid of him right now, not when he has his tongue lolling out of the side of him mouth.

Together they head back into the kitchen, and while Jongin prepares some fruit for the baby- for Namyeong, Kyungsoo corrects inside his head- Kyungsoo returns to the yams they were working on earlier. They are nicely soaked, so he starts wrapping them around some of the sweetened berry mixture and then placing them on a tray to be baked. Jongin joins him once he’s peeled the citrine for Namyeong. His work is a lot shoddier than Kyungsoo’s, and it’s obvious which ones are his. It doesn’t matter, though, they’ll still taste as sweet when they’re done.

“Is that all of it?” Jongin asks, licking his fingers. Kyungsoo's breath catches in his throat, and he frantically works to stamp out any kind of reaction that might be noticeable by Jongin.

“Do you  _ see  _ any more in the bowl?” Kyungsoo retorts, heart still beating faster than it should be. “Yeah, we’ve finished now.” He reaches across to the gemstone embedded in the wall and activates the oven. While it heats up, both of them wash their hands of the sticky sweetness.

With the pastries in the oven, they’re now free to play with Namyeong, or be played with by Namyeong would be more accurate probably. Soon the atrium won’t be big enough for the dragon to comfortably live in anymore, and they’ll have to move out of the city to somewhere with a huge forest. Their life will get significantly more difficult after that, when they won’t have the convenience of nearby shopping facilities.

Kyungsoo is a bit nervous about what Jongin’s reaction to that will be. Hopefully he won’t hate it. Well, whatever, there’s still ages until either of them have to think about it, he’ll bring it up when Jongin is happier here. Maybe. In the meantime, Kyungsoo takes the bowl out of Jongin’s hands and, ignoring the other boy’s whining, starts to wash it up, to save just a fraction of his sanity. 

 

 

The nerves are beginning to settle in, now that they're both seated in front of the camera. Even Namyeong seems to recognise the gravity of the situation, seated across both of their laps, behaving well for once. After the call to the head magician, a slot on a popular morning breakfast show had been organised surprisingly quickly. They didn’t even have to wait a day before requests were flooding in, for interviews for newspapers and cryscreen showings. Someone working in the magician’s guild had decided that this particular show would be the best one for them to make their first showing on.  It’s a morning show, so it will be fairly tame all things considered. They won’t have any deep, personal questions asked, and there shouldn’t be too many jokes on their behalf. It should be a straight forward introduction of Namyeong to the public, and the presenter is going to ask a few questions about the dragon, his likes and dislikes. Simple.

Kyungsoo and Jongin share a look as the presenter makes her way into the set, trailed by two stylists that follow with brushes to apply makeup and a comb to fix her fringe. She shakes them off, sitting down in the plush armchair opposite them and adjusts the crystal around her neck so that it's the perfect place to pick up her voice. It's hidden out of sight underneath one of the folds of her peach coloured tunic.   
Kyungsoo takes a deep breath, knowing that he's the one that most of the questions will be directed to, since most of the population still see Jongin as the 'newbie'. It isn't exactly true; Jongin had just as much experience raising a dragon as Kyungsoo does is just that Kyungsoo was a bit more prepared for it.   
The lights flare up, and Kyungsoo tries not to squint at the camera, but it hurts his eyes a little. Someone on the other side of the light counts down.   
"On in three... Two... One. We're live."    
The presenter takes over instantly, a glowing smile on her face.    
"Good morning everyone! Jimin here, along with two very special guests. I have with me today the dragon guardians themselves, Kyungsoo and Jongin, along with the recently hatched dragon." The camera pans towards them, and Kyungsoo hopes that he doesn't look too uncomfortable.   
"It's a pleasure to be here." Kyungsoo lies. Namyeong shifts in his lap, laughing to himself.    
"Now, we've all heard the news: the baby dragon has finally revealed his name to you guys. Let's not beat around the bush; all of us are dying to find out too!”

“His name is Im Namyeon. Named for the forest like his parents.” Kyungsoo explains. 

“Im Namyeong, huh? I don’t know about everyone else, but I’d say that name suits him to a T.”

“He certainly looks like a forest dragon, doesn’t he?” Kyungsoo laughs, playing with Namyeong’s wing, stretching it out to show the presenter the leaf-like quality of the skin. He puts up with it, but one look from the little dragon tells Kyungsoo not to push it.  The presenter, Jimin, smiles indulgently at all three of them.

“Remind us again, how long have you two been taking care of this young dragon?" She grins brightly, indicating that she wants Kyungsoo to speak now. He gulps.   
"Well, the bonding ceremony was four and a half months ago, which means that it's been almost three months that he's been hatched." He explains, feeling like the most redundant person in the world. How would anyone not know this information? It’s been blasted in the entire population’s face all day every day.   
"For those that don't know, a telepathic and empathic link is formed between a human and a dragon during the ceremony, allowing both parties to share emotions and thoughts."

Namyeong yawns. Jimin looks a little put-off by that, knowing that he can understand everything. Kyungsoo mentally reprimands him for being rude, but Namyeong looks the other way. He’s being a brat. So much for ‘mighty Namyeong’.

“They use their empathic bond during the beginning of their life and, later on, when young dragons reach a certain age, they start to use their telepathy to communicate with more clarity. When they reach this age, dragons start the search through their long-memories to find a name they like. Sometimes this can take weeks, even  _ months _ .”

“Not for this little monster.” Jongin laughs. Namyeon looks up in offence.

_ I am no monster, _ he snarls. 

“Yep, our little rascal kept silent the whole time, then suddenly introduced himself in his second sentence, surprising the life out of us.” Jongin explains, ruffling Namyeong’s fur, then recoiling with a yelp when the dragon nips at his fingers. “What have we told you about biting?” Jongin scolds.

_ Not to do it. _ Namyeong uses the bond to reiterate what he’s been told before, and mewls pitifully out loud. Kyungsoo relays what he’s said, for the benefit of everyone else watching.

“That’s right.”

_I will not apologise. You are making me seem like an infant._ _It is demeaning._ Namyeong sulks.

“You  _ are  _ an infant.” Jongin mumbles. Kyungsoo snorts at their exchange- usually it’s him on the other end of Nameyong’s ire. Jimin watches on in awe. Finally snapping out of her daze, she clears her throat and leans in closer.

“Tell me; what’s it like raising a young dragon?” She asks, genuinely curious. Kyungsoo chews on his lower lip, not quite knowing how to explain.

“Well, I’ve never raised a child, but I’d imagine it’s a lot like that? Except Namyeon is faster, and stronger, and can fly.”

“And he likes to look after anything shiny that we leave lying around.” Jongin adds, managing to rile Namyeon up even further. His tail flicks to and fro on their laps, whipping Jongin’s fingers.

“Namyeon doesn’t appreciate being made fun of like this.” He smirks down at the dragon. “Maybe if you gave Jongin back his phone, then he wouldn’t be bitter?” 

_ It doesn’t even function, _ Namyeong protests,  _ what use does he have for it? _

“It’s not about whether it’s useful!” Jongin pouts. Orange indignation radiates through the bond, and Kyungsoo clears his throat, reminding Jongin that they’re live on broadcast right now.

“He’s a little smarta- alec.” Jongin shrugs, “so yeah, like raising a  child if your child was a heavenly reptile.” Kyugnsoo smiles inwardly, secretly proud of Jongin for remembering to call him that.

_ Can I leave? I don’t know how much longer I can remain still. _ Jongin nods, helping to shove him off their laps. Namyeong falls to the floor with a splat, and scuttles off-set after giving Jongin a short glare. Jimin watches him go,  but quickly recovers, continuing with her interview.

“Can you explain how the bond feels?”Jimin asks, “Is it words, or pictures? Or something else entirely?”

“It’s both.” Kyungsoo says, “Particularly with Namyeong, it’s pictures. They’re always slightly hazy- it’s like having someone else’s thoughts thought for you? If that makes sense. Sometimes we also feel emotions and physical pain that doesn’t belong to us.”

“Physical pain? That’s unusual.” Jimin says, eyes wide in obvious surprise.

“Actually, it isn’t!” Kyungsoo grins, glad to show off his book smarts, “If it’s unusual, it’s because most dragons have been lucky enough not to be in pain, or being able to conceal it. But it’s actually not uncommon for us to feel it if we, say, cut out finger cooking or trip over. Usually it’s when we are caught by surprise.”

“Hmm.” Jimin tucks a lock of hair behind her ear. “So, is it very different being bonded to a human, compared to a dragon?” Kyungsoo winces- how have they gotten so wildly off track? He glances at Jongin, who shrugs, cheeks a sweet shade of pink. Are they even allowed to talk about this kind of thing? He doesn’t want to give anything away, so he will have to be careful in his answer. Jongin still doesn’t want the whole world knowing about his transition, and Kyungsoo doesn’t want Jongin to know of his growing... _ feelings. _

“It’s not too different, I suppose?” Kyungsoo says hesitantly. “The magic is the same for all three of us, but Jongin and I don’t need to use it as our primary source of communication, so we usually stick to just talking. It also allows for us to keep our privacy, that way.” He turn to Jongin, who nods rapidly. Jimin tilts her head back, taking this in. The young dragon climbs up the furniture, claws digging into the upholstery. Kyungsoo hopes he doesn’t tear anything.

“I’m sure the whole nation would like to know; is it difficult living together? We’ve seen how you’ve become more comfortable with each other at public events and the like. But is it like that behind closed doors?”

“U-uh.” Kyungsoo stammers. He wills himself not to blush but he can already feel his cheeks heating up. Namyeong laughs from beside him, where he’s perched on the back of the sofa. “No, I think we get along pretty well.”

“Yeah.” Jongin agrees. “We bicker sometimes, but nothing  _ too  _ bad. We’re a team now, so we try to make sure we sort out problems as quickly as possible.”

“What’s something you’ve fought over recently?” Jimin asks, sounding less and less like a professional with each question, and more like a nosy paparazzi journalist. It’s making him a little uncomfortable, and he knows Jongin doesn’t like it much either. Luckily, they’re only scheduled in for this one segment, and they only have a few minutes left before they can leave.

“Well, the most common thing we fight over is food, and what to watch on the cryscreen.” Kyungsoo lies. Usually they fight over who’s side of the bed is who’s, and the mess of clothes that accumulates on the floor, but Kyungsoo doesn’t want to announce their cohabitation so easily. “I like dramas, and Jongin likes dance. We argue a lot over that sort of thing.” That’s not exactly a lie, they do sometimes fight over that kind of thing.

Their most common fights aren’t really arguments, per se. They happen less and less now, but while they were both sorting out their emotions, and adjusting to the new situation, sometimes they would go an entire day without talking to each other. Once Namyeon hatched, things seemed to click a bit better for all of them; they had more of a reason to talk to each other at length, rather than fleeting conversations.

_ Can we please get back to me, now? _ Namyeong chirps, leaping off the back of the sofa and landing on the floor after a short glide. His acrobatics rouse a response from the crew behind the camera, some gasps and shouts, but also some applause. Namyeong raises his head proudly, preening under all the attention. Kyungsoo wonders briefly what happened to the script they were supposed to be following.

“Ah, yes, we haven’t forgotten about you!” Jimin says, clapping her hands together.

“How could anyone forget him?” Kyungsoo jokes, only to be ignored by the dragon in question, too proud to dignify his comment with a response. The corner of Jongin’s lip raises, and he catches Kyungsoo’s gaze, a knowing glint in his eye. At least someone thinks he’s funny.

“Namyeong, what’s it like being bonded to these two, are they good guardians?” She sends a look Kyungsoo’s way, to prepare him for translating everything he tells them.

_ They feed me, and care for me. They are good, kind people, but not very smart. _

“Why would you say that?” Jimin laughs, probably expecting some kind of bratty response.

_ Neither of them are good at  _ seeing _ each other. _

“Oh dear, is that a comment on your guardianship skills?” Jimin teases, trying to add a little levity to the interview, as both Jongin and Kyungsoo clam up. What on earth is that supposed to mean? He laughs loudly, and thanks heaven that they only have a minute and a half left until their slot is over.

“If it is, then we’ll be sure to work it out and try to improve.” Kyungsoo jerks his head, telling Namyeong to get back over here. Namyeong waits a moment, pushing against his guardians’ authority before finally behaving. This interview is a mess and Kyungsoo won’t be at all surprised if he, or the presenter, gets a stern word from the head magician, or one of his subordinates. They haven’t spilled anything major, thank goodness, so it’s not too big of a deal, not really.

“Before we go, I’d like to ask one final question: Namyeong, what is your favourite thing to collect?”

_ I like everything shiny, but I’d love gemstones _ .

Kyungsoo repeats what Namyeong has said, and hopes to god that nobody starts sending them expensive rocks, because he’ll just get brattier and brattier.

“Perhaps when you move to the countryside, they’ll be easier to find?” She suggests. Namyeong lights up at the idea, positively vibrating. Kyungsoo can almost see the mountain of sparkly, shiny objects that he’s going to have to curate.

“And that’s it! We’re all out of time for today, but it was lovely having you with us! And wonderful to finally be introduced to Namyeong.”

“Likewise.” Kyungsoo smiles politely, and bows his head. Jongin follows suit, and Jongin waves cutely at the camera as the lights fade and the camera cuts out. 

“Aaand we’re off air.” A disembodied voice announces. Namyeong clambers up to sit on Jongin’s shoulder as they rise to head off to the backstage area, but Jimin stops them;

“Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean for those questions to get so personal, it was incredibly unprofessional of me!” Jimin apologises, rubbing her hands together. “Please forgive me!”

“It’s alright.” Kyungsoo shrugs. “It caught us off guard, but it wasn’t too disastrous. Don’t worry about it.”

“Thank you.” She bows her head, making Kyungsoo a little uncomfortable. It’s still weird having people older than him treat him like he’s the superior. He coughs a short laugh, and is saved from having to talk more with her by Jongin, who tugs lightly on his sleeve. They fall into step quickly, walking to the back of the studio, behind all of the photomancy equipment, where two chairs have been set up for them. It isn’t exactly celebrity treatment, but they don’t need much.

“What did she mean by ‘when we move to the countryside’?” Jongin asks quietly, concern drawing his eyebrows together.

“Oh, that. Well, Namyeong is going to grow to big to stay inside the city.”

“I guess that’s true. But I was just starting to get used to living here.” He chuckles humorlessly and Kyungsoo’s heart squeezes.

“It’s not going to happen for at least a year, yet.” Kyungsoo explains, “Just when Namyeong gets too big to play in the atrium anymore, we’ll have to relocate.”

“That makes sense.” Jongin licks his lips. Kyungsoo sighs loudly. He tries to change the subject; moving house is a long way off, as far as he is concerned, and Jongin shouldn’t worry about it too much yet.

“Well, that could have been worse, right? You’re getting better at interviews! You spoke up several times, I’m proud of you.” He compliments. Jongin half smiles, bashful. Kyungsoo wants to hug him, and hold him close, but that would be overstepping his boundaries, and the last thing he wants is to make him uncomfortable. He clutches at ends of his sleeves instead.

“Thanks.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> helloo did u miss me (or jongin our poor bby he deserves all the love in the world) 
> 
> THE DRAGON'S NAME IS NAMYEONG!! WOO did anyone see that coming? i hinted on twitter (@celerydragon) that there would be a reveal i this chapter hahah
> 
> also i entered kaisoommer so look out for that lol ;)


	9. Chapter Nine: The Shopping Trip

Getting dressed in the morning is less of a hassle for Jongin than it used to be. He's gotten used to all the loose fabric and stray ties that keep it from flapping open, and can be ready in less than ten minutes if he needs to be. He still likes to have privacy, and always changes in the bathroom, no matter how many times Kyungsoo has said that he doesn't mind. It just makes Jongin feel better.

With his floaty, summery white tunic top is correctly fastened, he rests his hands on the basin, and stares at his reflection. He turns his head this way and that, examining his hair and face. His hair is getting a bit long, and he should really get it cut. He runs the back of his fingers across his jawline, and wonders if it's just his imagination, or is it getting a little sharper? Pursing his lips, he picks up some soap and his razor, and begins to shave. There's not much there to shave, it's true, but just knowing that he's actually growing facial hair now is enough to make him feel better about the future. The elixir that he's been taking has helped in giving his body subtle changes, like lowering his voice as well.

After rinsing his face, using his crystal to start the water flow, Jongin angles his head to the side, checking out the smoothness of his skin. There’s a tiny little cut, but it’s not noticeable, so he’s not worried. And even if Kyungsoo  _ did _ notice, he would never make him feel uncomfortable about it. He’s so nice about everything, but he never makes him feel like he’s just being polite, or that he’s secretly hiding discomfort. That was a feeling that he got a lot back home; when he started wearing more masculine clothes, and asked his parents for his hair to be cut short. His mother in particular had been very embarrassed about it. It gradually got worse and worse, with her refusing to be seen in public with him, often wondering out loud why she couldn’t have just raised a ‘normal girl’, until Jongin had burst. 

There was an argument, which resulted in him angrily packing a rucksack and leaving, wiping his face clear of hot tears.

Jongin shakes his head. Despite being hot headed, Kyungsoo isn’t like that. In fact, no one here is like that. It feels like he’s living in a waking dream, but still… somehow he misses them. Or misses what could have been? Jongin isn’t sure, but it hurts. He wishes he could go back sometimes, and make up with his family somehow. It’s a stupid dream, that will never come true. And he isn’t really sure that he would even  _ want  _ it to come true; being stuck in his own world again and having to face the reality that his mother and father don’t love him the way he is- he couldn’t bear it. Still, there are other things that he misses; his friends, for example. Chanyeol had always been a ray of sunshine, and had even let him stay secretly in his room for almost a week before his mother found out. He’s what he misses the most about his old life. Him, and food that has familiar names. Not the cold nights in homeless shelters, or at his lowest point, huddled in shop doorways or under park benches.

“Jongin? Are you done in there?” Kyungsoo knocks on the door, making him jump. “I thought you said you’d be quick, we need to get food.” Jongin clears his throat, making sure one last time that his magenta tunic is securely tied in place.

“Yeah, I’m almost done!” He calls out, clearing away his things. Kyungsoo never comes into the bathroom while Jongin is in there, not after that first day when he walked in on him changing. Jongin checks himself over one last time before heading out, just to make sure that he hasn’t missed anything, making sure there aren’t any stray hairs; he looks good. He smiles at his reflection, and goes to meet Kyungsoo in the hallway.

Kyungsoo is waiting by the door, Namyeong sat by his foot, watching his tail-leaves twitch. They both look up when Jongin arrives, and a flush of pleasure runs through him. He grins as they make their way to the front door.

“You look good.” Kyungsoo says coolly, looking away quickly. Namyeong laughs, a sound Jongin can only describe as dragonesque. He tries his best to hide how happy the simple compliment makes him, but he is sure that some of his feelings leak through their bond. He’s not as good as Kyungsoo at concealing his emotions. If he notices anything, he doesn’t say it out loud, for which he is thankful.

"Ready to go?" Kyungsoo asks, smiling wanly. He doesn't enjoy their weekly shopping trips as much as Jongin; he doesn't see the novelty in the products, or the celebrity status the way Jongin does. Not that Jongin particularly loves being followed around and whispered about, but now that he's more used to it, it's nice to have the whispering  _ not _ be accompanied with frowns and snide comments. Jongin nods, and Namyeong jumps at him, clambering up his clothing to perch on his shoulder. Jongin winces under his weight- the baby dragon is getting far too big for this kind of behaviour, and Jongin can barely hold him up. He takes a precarious step forward, grimacing at Kyungsoo who only looks amused, and has to compensate when Namyeong's weight ends up tipping him too far forward.

_ What are you waiting for? _ Namyeong asks, his voice clear as crystal through their shared bond.

"I think you're going to have to walk yourself," Jongin confesses, hissing as the dragon's claws tighten around his shoulder. He doesn't even need the advantage of the bond to know that Namyeong is not happy with this. He snorts, and pushes off from Jongin's shoulder, sending him stumbling backwards into the wall.

"I'm sorry, baby, but you're getting too big for this." Jongin pushes his lower lip out, exaggeratedly pouting, and rubs his shoulder. At least he didn't break the skin. Namyeong turns away, waiting twitchily in the entranceway. Unsure whether it’s because he called him baby, or because he now has to walk all the way into the shopping centre by himself, Jongin shakes his head. Kyungsoo nudges Jongin conspiratorially before touching the crystal by the front door, and opening it out onto the street. It's a little chilly outside, and it makes Jongin wish he had put on another layer, but it's too late to go back now; Kyungsoo and Namyeong are already halfway out the door and he doesn't want to make them wait any longer. Besides, the warm flush that warms him when Kyungsoo turns back to grin at him makes it unnecessary anyway. He hums to himself, shutting the door behind him and sets off at a light jog to catch up with the other two.

The streets in this part of town are pretty quiet. Jongin understands that this is an area where the richer, or at least, older residents live. It makes sense, then, that there's rarely any noise at night, or that they don't get many passers-by. The rows of houses are all pearly white or another pale shade of iridescence, and smooth as plaster except for silken wooden door frames. They all kind of stick out of the ground, like pretty termite towers, separated and isolated from each other. Coming from a city of apartment blocks and flats as high as mountains, it was a shock to the system to be able to see the horizon between the houses. Sometimes it feels like he's on an alien planet, and then he remembers that... he  _ is _ on an alien planet. Maybe in another dimension.

Another thing that had surprised Jongin is the lack of cars, or any kind of equivalent. Everyone here walks, or uses some contraption which Jongin thinks looks kind of similar to a bicycle. It would be cool to learn how to ride one, but if what Kyungsoo says is true, they mightn’t be staying in the city long enough for it to be worth it. People here don't seem to make longer journeys, for the most part living their lives within the same city. Not that Jongin ever really left Seoul, but he knew that he easily could have. If he had the money. He sighs softly, wishing that his mind didn’t always circle back to that, and looks around him. Kyungsoo is a little ahead, but not walking too fast. Maybe he knows that Jongin is having one of those days.

"Is there anything specific on the shopping list today?" He asks, wanting to start a conversation. Wanting to hear Kyungsoo speaking to him.

"The usual stuff. More meat, because Namyeong goes through it so fast now." Jongin is a little miffed that the dragon gets meat and he doesn't. "What else?" He hums as he pats himself down, searching for the list he must have made earlier. "Aha! I wanted to get some salted fruit snacks, since you said you'd never tried it before."

"Yeah, because it sounds gross. You don't put salt on fruit." Jongin wrinkles his nose, and Kyungsoo smirks.

"Just trust me. It's good, I promise." He laughs, "I think you'll like it."

“Yeah, sure I will.” Jongin sighs, knowing that no matter what he says, he’s going to end up eating some anyway. Kyungsoo is stubborn and Jongin doesn’t like to upset people, which makes for a lot of interesting mealtimes. He’s used to it.

Kyungsoo continues to list off other things that they need to buy with their allowance, if they have enough this time around, and Jongin half zones out, watching Namyeong walking. He looks a little ungainly, like he’s out of place wandering through the paved streets of the city, his claws click-clacking on the ground. He definitely fits in better amongst the trees of the atrium. When he gets even bigger though, he won’t be able to dart between the branches the way he does now. Jongin wonders what it will be like when Namyeong is old and huge. Will he still be the same old Namyeong? Bratty but wise beyond his years? Or will he mellow down, like the ancient dragons Kyungsoo describes in his stories? And then, how will Kyungsoo be at that time? Jongin pictures and aged and wrinkled version of his human companion, still with his stubborn streak and hotheaded nature, and bites his lip, glancing towards him in case he’s let any of his thoughts slip through. Kyungsoo looks back at him, one eyebrow raised. Good, it doesn’t look like he’s noticed anything. He clears his throat.

“Where are we going first again?” He asks.

“You weren’t listening at all, were you.” Kyungsoo rolls his eyes and half heartedly elbows him. “We’re going to start with booking some crystal recalibration at the magicians’ guild, and then go to Mrs Oh’s place to pick up that elixyr for you, and  _ then _ we’ll get some groceries. Sound ok?” 

Jongin nods, and rubs his tummy where Kyungsoo got him, pouting. 

 

The magicians’ guild is not what Jongin expected. At all. 

Sure, he’s been to the headquarters many times, to see the head magician, and had a few sessions with magically trained medical-magicians, but he guesses they must have been using a different entrance or something, because this is completely different. This place looks like what Jongin would call a department store. Rather than rows of tiny shops, all with their own wares to sell, this place is like a marketplace inside a building. There are tradespeople with their blue face tattoos standing next to stalls, attracting customers and bartering.

Jongin is taken aback by just how many people are in here- he reaches for Kyungsoo's hand on reflex, but changes his mind when their fingers brush. He plays it off as an accident, but Kyungsoo's lips twist, and Jongin knows instantly that he knows he’s nervous. Somehow, without either of them truly deciding, their hands end up linked together.

“C’mon, we’re just going to get our crystals recalibrated again, that’s it. We don’t have to spend long in here.”

Jongin stands behind Kyungsoo as he negotiates the full cost of the recalibration. Honestly, he hadn’t even noticed that the magic was wearing thin, but apparently the reaction for the crystals should be faster than it is. Who knew? Not Jongin. 

He tries to pay attention to what Kyungsoo is saying, since he seems like he’s done this kind of thing before, but he doesn’t really have a clue what they’re talking about. Sighing through his nose, he looks around him. There are stalls here selling all sorts of things. There’s one not too far away with a variety of furniture, all of it made to look like dragons. A wardrobe with scales carved into the surface, which might be made of wood, but he can’t be sure here. A bed with a dragon curled up around the top where a headboard would be. A bath with dragon feet, and dragon head taps. Even a toilet with a tail. Jongin would love to have something like that in their home- perhaps the sofa? It has  _ wings!- _ but Kyungsoo thinks that these kinds of things are tasteless. And maybe they are, but he can’t find it within him to mind. And it’s not like they can really afford fancy things on their current budget anyway.

Finally noticing Namyeong preening under the attention of a bunch of middle aged women, who are a short distance away, he smiles to himself, and crouches behind him, running his fingers down the dragon’s spine and making him shiver. One would think he doesn’t get enough attention from him and Kyungsoo, but they both lavish him with love and affection constantly. 

This area of the hall is not particularly busy at the moment, so despite the nerves he smiles at the older ladies, and invites them to come and meet Namyeong. He shouldn’t appear to be rude, and the nicer he is to strangers like this, the better reputation he and Kyungsoo will have. 

They hesitate only for a moment, before the opportunity sinks in and they join the pair of them on the floor, cooing over the young dragon, who soaks up their praise like a sponge. 

“Oh, isn’t he beautiful?” The woman in the middle sighs, reaching for what Jongin assumes is her photomancy crystal. He opens one lazy eye, looking back at Jongin as if to say ‘ _ see? This is how I should be treated  _ all  _ the time _ ’. 

“Are you really still holding a grudge from earlier?” Jongin flicks Namyeong’s side, provoking him so slap his hand away with his tail.

_ No _ . Namyeon responds, with a huff. Jongin doesn’t believe him for a second.

“May we take a photogram with you?” One of the women says, holding out a very pretty crystal. Jongin opens his mouth to respond, but a hand rests on his back, making him jump for a second before he realises who it is,

“We’d love to take a photo with you.” Kyungsoo says, in his low, steady voice. He turns to Jongin, leaning in close to whisper something so that the three ladies can't hear him, "How about we try holding Namyeong in between us?"

"I think I could manage him on my hip, like a baby?" Jongin whispers back, "I used to hold my cousin that way."

"If you're sure-!" before Jongin is really able to even properly convince him that it will be fine, Namyeong is already pouncing on him, and Jongin is scrambling to hold him without getting hurt, or falling over. He sputters, and somehow manages to hold back from cursing out loud, but he makes sure that Namyeong gets the full force of his shock. The little lizard doesn't even have the decency to look sheepish when Jongin glares down at him, when he's finally safely settled in his arms. The women gather around them both, and hold out their crystal. Kyungsoo’s hand is still resting comfortably on his back. Jongin stiffens when he realises, and has a hard time maintaining an authentic-looking smile, even though he’s practiced it in the mirror for these kinds of situations.

“Jongin?” Kyungsoo murmurs, without dropping his smile, “relax.” At his words, Jongin becomes even tenser for a moment, embarrassed at having been noticed. He lets out a deep breath, forcing his body to go lax, and letting his smile become more natural just in time for the photo to be taken. 

The women step away, still giggling amongst themselves, and casting the three of them short glances. Kyungsoo’s hand slips from Jongin’s waist, dragging accidentally across his butt and making his eyes fly wide open. He looks sharply at Kyungsoo, but he is looking in the other direction, already heading back to the counter to finish talking to the merchant, and makes no other indication he even realised that happened. Jongin bites his lip and shakes his head. He hoists Namyeong further on his hip, before he can slide down, then changes his mind.

“Namyeong, you can get down now.” He murmurs. The little dragon stares at him wordlessly, unnerving him for a moment, before huffing a puff of warm air at his face, and letting himself drop lithely to the ground like a cat. Jongin rearranges his clothing, noting with exasperation that Namyeong’s sharp claws have torn a few tiny holes in the  fabric. He holds the offending patch of fabric out for Namyeong to see, glaring at him, displeased. Namyeong blinks slowly at it, and turns away. Jongin rolls his eyes. Naturally, he wouldn’t give a hoot. 

“You should apologise, you know.” Jongin says primly, “now I’m going to have to repair this.”

_ You offered to hold me. _ Namyeong retorts, and Jongin wilts. That’s true.  _ Also, do not distract yourself from the real reason you are upset _ , Namyeong speaks again, with mirth this time. Flushing scarlet, Jongin tells him to shut up, glancing over his shoulder to make sure Kyungsoo isn’t privy to their conversation. While they wait for Kyungsoo to finish, Jongin nervously  picks at the holes, and Namyeong peers at passersby, all of them watching curiously but none daring to come closer like the gaggle of women from earlier. Jongin wonders why.

Alright, so maybe he  _ is _ sulking a little bit. He’s not really sure why the accidental brushing of Kyungsoo’s hand is affecting him so- it was just a mistake after all. It wasn’t even anything substantial, it had just caught him by surprise. He wouldn’t have wanted Kyungsoo- or anyone- to have done that on purpose. Or…? 

But there’s absolutely no way he would ever think of him in that way anyway, so what’s the point in thinking about it? He shakes his head of these thoughts, already running in circles in his mind.

A hand on his arm makes Jongin jump- he hadn’t noticed that Kyungsoo had already finished.

“Someone will come the day after tomorrow to calibrate them.” He informs Jongin, who is desperately clamping down on his end of the bond, so that Kyungsoo doesn’t notice his racing heart. “Shall we have a look around?” 

Wordlessly, Jongin nods.

Together, they wander through the Magician’s Guild Headquarters, pausing occasionally to look at something that catches their fancy. Namyeong walks in the middle of them, giving a fair bit of distance between the two humans, that Jongin half regrets. Half because although he would like to be closer to Kyungsoo, he wouldn’t know what to do if the opportunity presented itself. He sighs to himself, and looks over a selection of toiletries encased in a glass box. The merchant behind the casing sends him a bright smile, which Jongin returns, a little confused. Immediately, the woman stands up, making Jongin stop in his tracks.

“Can I help you find anything?” She says, her sunny disposition reminding him a little of Chanyeol. A pang of homesickness pulls at him.

“Uhh-” Jongin prevaricates, looking once again at her wares. They look to be a selection of skin creams and the like, which he doesn’t really need any of at present. Kyungsoo doesn’t seem to have noticed that he’s not still with them yet.

“You look like a guy who could use a nice relaxing bath,” she carries on, as if oblivious to his floundering. “Or maybe a refreshing face mask?” She pulls out three round pots, and pulls the lids off them, offering them up for Jongin to smell. “Not just a pretty fragrance, it also helps your skin to stay moisturised and hydrated.”

“Um-” The merchant wafts one of them in front of his face, and he has to admit that it  _ does _ smell good, but he doesn’t use facemasks, so why would he buy one. Seeming to sense his hesitance, she squints at him.

“Not a facemask kind of guy, huh?” She says, her smile falling a little. Jongin shakes his head regretfully, not quite sure why he’s feeling guilty for not wanting to buy something he won’t ever use. He scrambles for something that might make her happy. Maybe it’s her first day on the job, or something; that would explain why she’s so eager.

“Uh, I like baths?” He says, remembering what she said a minute ago. It’s comical how quickly her smile reappears as she replaces the pots of cream with small bags.

“I have a selection of bath salts- do you prefer floral or fruity scents?”

“I-” Jongin purses his lips, seriously considering the question. “I like floral, I think.” she pushes three of the bags aside, and begins to explain in detail the aroma and function of each bag. Jongin tries his best to keep up with the barrage of information, nodding helplessly and obediently sniffing each bag as she describes it. He doesn’t recognise any of the flower names, or their smells, but nods and smiles anyway. At the end of her demonstration, she looks at him expectantly. He reaches for his coin purse, tied to his waistband, and picks out his favourite.

“Thank you for your patronage.” The merchant says, handing over a fresh bag of his chosen purchase. He bows his head, unsure what to do with the bag now that he has it. After a moment of thought, he uses the pull-cords of the bag to tie to his waistband, along with his coin purse, the looks up to search for Kyungsoo.

He isn’t far. Just a little ways away, Kyungsoo is stood watching him, one arm across his tummy, the hand covering his mouth. 

As Jongin approaches, he realises that he’s laughing. At him. He scowls, feeling heat rise to his cheeks. It's not  _ that  _ unusual for Kyungsoo to be laughing at him, but this time it’s in public. Namyeong, sat next to Kyungsoo’s right foot is watching him gleefully as well.

“What?” He says, stopping in front of him, suddenly unsure. Has he made some awful social blunder?

“Oh, nothing. Was just funny watching you get conned out of your money.” Jongin’s frown deepens. 

“Is this not bath salt?” Jongin asks, pulling at the cords, though it will only open a little way now that it's tied to his waist. Did she sell him some rubbish, claiming it was good for him?

“No, no it’s not that. Some of the merchants here are just very good at getting you to buy things you don’t need.”

“Oh.” He lets the bag drop down to his side. Kyungsoo shakes his head, exasperated but fond.

“At least now you’ll be able to have a fancy bath?” He tries to console him, but he’s still laughing a little, which dampens the effect. Jongin wrinkles his nose at him.

“I am going to have the best damn bath of my life.” He announces. Kyungsoo claps his hands.

“Great. First, though, we still need to go buy groceries and meat for Namyeong.” 

 

For the food, they head outside into the warm Anhan air, intending to head to their usual grocery stand which they walked past on their way here. Only to be met with a crowd of people who, on their exit, begin shouting and clamouring to see Namyeong, to take photos, and asking questions. 

For a moment, Jongin is frozen to the spot. While it is normal for a few people to stop them and ask for a photogram, like earlier, or to be stared at, this is  _ not  _ normal. A glance in Kyungsoo’s direction shows that he did not expect any crowds either. How did they all know they were inside? Why did they all wait out here?

Namyeong, however, doesn’t seem displeased in the slightest. Holding his head high, he poses gracefully for the masses, holding the fan of his tail leaves aloft like a peacock.

“What do we do?” Jongin hisses, hoping Kyungsoo can hear him.

“Keep smiling.” Kyungsoo hisses back, waving at everyone, and making eye contact with as many as he can. Jongin copies his actions. Many of the crowd are holding crystals aloft, taking photos of them, so he makes sure to look into them, if he can. Kyungsoo answers a few questions about the dragons health, and habits, though all the words blend into one another. Namyeong is loving the attention, turning his head this way and that so that everyone can have an image of his best side.

Kyungsoo edges closer to him, and glances conspicuously to the side- Jongin doesn’t need the bond to be open to understand that they’re going to make a break for it.

“Thank you for supporting us!” Kyungsoo says loudly, “We hope for your continued support in raising Namyeong!”

They start walking slowly, so it doesn’t look overtly like they’re running away, but after a few steps, Kyungsoo grabs Jongin’s hand and picks up the pace a bit. Namyeong lags behind, allowing a few select people to stroke his mane, before he catches up with Kyungsoo and Jongin halfway down the street. At this point, they’re almost running, and Jongin is laughing like an idiot at the absurdity of the situation. Who knew that on a different planet, he would be hounded like a celebrity? It’s crazy. 

Still hand in hand, they fly past confused people, who dart out of their way at the last second. Namyeong runs alongside them, his mouth open and eyes half closed in joy. They turn a corner into a quieter area, and the dragon pounces on Kyungsoo’s shoulder. Kyungsoo, not having anticipated the surprise attack, falls to the ground, bringing Jongin with him. They land in a laughing heap on the cobblestone ground, Kyungsoo laying on his back with Jongin on top of him, arms braced either side of his head. He groans, feeling the sting in his elbows and knees.

“Ahhh, that was unexpected.” Kyungsoo says, his voice breathless. Jongin isn’t sure whether he means the people waiting for them, or Namyeong’s bounciness. Punctuating Jongin’s thoughts, the little dragon leaps onto his back, knocking the wind out of him. He can hear the skittering of the dragon’s claws as he gallops around them, excited beyond words now. He’s still just a baby, after all.

“Are you hurt?” Jongin asks, as he pulls back from Kyungsoo. He realises how he’s positioned a second later, biting his lip and standing up faster. He clears his throat and offers Kyungsoo a hand up.

“I’m fine.” Kyungsoo promises, looking up at him with an expression that makes Jongin both want to look away, and commit his face to memory. Although, he’s pretty sure he’d be able to draw Kyungsoo’s face with his eyes closed by now. If he were any good at drawing, that is. 

He pulls Kyungsoo to his feet, and clears his throat again, awkward now that they’re no longer caught up in the moment.

Kyungsoo watches him, the corner of his mouth pulling up in a hint of a smile, and Jongin stares back dumbly.

“Jongin? Can I have my hand back?” Jongin lets go as if he’s been burned, and pretends to rearrange his clothing to give him a reason not to meet his eye. Kyungsoo sighs, and laughs softly.

“S-shall we go to the grocery stall?” Jongin suggests, still looking everywhere but Kyungsoo’s face.

“I suppose we should.” Kyungsoo agrees, setting off in the right direction. “I think we should see about asking for help going shopping, so that something like that doesn’t get out of control.”

“Good idea.” Jongin nods. It’s scary to think of all the things that could go wrong in that situation; he guesses they were lucky they were able to get away.

Namyeong has calmed himself a little, but is still hopping from foot to foot. It’s such a change from his usual precocious behaviour, and he’s adorable. Kyungsoo crouches beside him, and Namyeong leans into Kyungsoo’s hands. The dragon opens one eye to look at Jongin. His will is not strong enough to resist him, and he crouches next to him to give the little dragon some attention as well.

 

After their sudden encounter with the mob, as Kyungsoo has taken to calling them, all three of them had been hyper vigilant on their journey to buy food. While it had been fun to pretend that he was a spy, or a fugitive on the run from society, it had taken a lot out of them. Carrying their load home, especially, was not fun. Namyeong refused to carry anything for them, despite a fair amount of it being for him.

Kyungsoo unlocks the door to their home with his crystal, and all three of them collapse in the entranceway, tripping over each other and their purchases that have tumbled to the floor.

“Ah, shit.” Jongin bites his lip, looking at the mess. Namyeon walks through it without a care in the world. Kyungsoo inhales deeply and closes his eyes, then ruffles his hair roughly. He looks tired, and when he’s tired, he gets a little snippy with both him and the dragon, so instead of commenting on it, Jongin silently helps him gather up the fallen fruits and vegetables, and helps to stash them away safely. Namyeong continues to get in the way, both genuinely curious, and mischievous at the same time. He tries to climb into the cupboard as Jongin piles the selves high with grains and dry food, and Jongin has to shove him away, much to his indignation.

“Thanks.” Kyungsoo says later, when they’re done. He’s sitting on the sofa now, his head tipped back so that his hair flops behind him. To his surprise, Jongin’s gaze lingers on the column of his neck. He gulps.

“I-I think I’ll go try out some of these bath salts?” He says, cursing internally that it comes out like a question. Kyungsoo hums in acknowledgement, but makes no move otherwise to indicate that he heard. Namyeong crawls onto the sofa next to him, and wriggles his head underneath Kyungsoo’s arm until his chin is comfortably on his lap. Kyungsoo looks like he’s already asleep, Jongin realises fondly. 

“Don’t wake him up.” He whispers to Namyeong, making an ‘I’m watching you!’ gesture with his fingers, before leaving to fetch his night clothes. There’s no point changing into day clothes when he knows he’s not going out again today. While he’s in their bedroom, he picks up a blanket, and lays it over Kyungsoo and Namyeong as he passes them to get to the bathroom.  _ Please don’t cover my face _ , Namyeong says, raising his head so Jongin can arrange it correctly. 

He tucks the edges underneath his arms, and smiles at the picture they make. It’s rare to see Kyungsoo asleep before it’s night time. If he knew how to use photomancy with his crystal, he would definitely take a photo- it’s too bad his phone is dead. 

With a huff, Jongin heads to the bathroom, and starts the water running. The light reflects off the water and casts pretty patterns onto the smooth white walls. After sprinkling a few pinches of the fragrant bath salts into the water, Jongin begins to undress. On impulse he drags the step, usually used to reach the higher cupboards, in front of the mirror so he can look at his full length reflection while he waits. He turns this way and that, his eye critically searching out every flaw, every source of dysphoria. There’s the spot Kyungsoo accidentally touched earlier. Would Kyungsoo ever be able to like a man like him? Irritated with himself, he slaps his cheeks and kicks the step away. He shouldn’t be doing this to himself, it always just makes him feel worse. And he was feeling so good about himself this morning! Biting back angry tears, he stops the flow of water and gets into the bathtub. It really does smell good.

What would Chanyeol tell him?  _ ‘Anyone that doesn’t think you’re the hottest piece of ass in the galaxy is clearly blind.’  _ He had told him once. Jongin half smiles to himself, wondering if his best friend is worried about him. He hopes not, but he’s already been gone so long that he might have been assumed dead or something.

Whether Kyungsoo would ever like him like that isn’t important, he tells himself, hiding in the water. All he needs to focus on is taking care of Namyeong, and making sure he doesn’t grow up to be a spoilt brat. That’s all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *mushu I live gif hehe*
> 
> Hi there! Im sorry for being absent all summer long (and winter now too), kaisommer took a lot more of my time than i expected it to haha and then ofc uni started and i had so much to do. this a/n has been rewritten 3 times now bc i kept being like 'oh i can get it done soon!' and then it didnt get done OTL ....bUT i have handed in my diss now so writing priority is fic again
> 
> my twitter is @celerydragon if you want to come say hi, or if youre shy you can always send my a message at curiouscat! and for those who might be interested my kaisoommer is called 'Save Yourself' its a magic au with werecat!jongin and magician!kyungsoo 
> 
> also thank u to change17 u gave me the motivation to finish this chapter which had been sitting there in my gdocs half done for months an faust for beta-ing last minute for me ur the best dad


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